Troubleshooting WooCommerce Orders

Each WooCommerce order status tells you where the order is in the process:

• Pending payment — the order was created but payment hasn’t been received yet. The customer may have abandoned the checkout, or the payment is still being processed.
• Processing — payment has been received and the order is awaiting fulfilment. This is the normal status for a successful order.
• On hold — the order is waiting for something — usually a manual payment confirmation (bank transfer, cheque) or a payment gateway hold.
• Completed — the order has been fulfilled and marked as done.
• Cancelled — the order was cancelled (either by the customer or by an admin).
• Failed — the payment failed. The customer’s card may have been declined, or there was a gateway error.
• Refunded — the order was refunded.

If an order shows as Failed or Pending payment, the issue is usually with the payment process rather than WooCommerce itself.

The most common reason for orders not coming through is a problem with the payment gateway (the service that processes card payments). To check:

1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings
2. Click the Payments tab
3. Make sure your payment method (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, or Worldpay) is enabled
4. Click Manage next to the payment method to check its settings
5. Verify the payment gateway is in Live mode, not Test/Sandbox mode

If the payment gateway is in Test mode, real payments won’t be processed and orders will either fail or not appear. This is a common issue after a site launch or after development work.

WooCommerce sends email notifications for various order events. If you’re not receiving order notification emails, it doesn’t necessarily mean orders aren’t coming through — the email itself may be the issue.

To check your notification settings:

1. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Emails
2. Find New order in the list and click Manage
3. Make sure Enable this email notification is ticked
4. Check the Recipient(s) field — this should contain the email address(es) where you want order notifications sent
5. Click Save changes

If notifications are configured correctly but emails still aren’t arriving, check your spam/junk folder. The emails may be getting filtered.

If everything looks correct but you’re still having issues, the best way to diagnose the problem is to place a test order yourself:

1. Go to your website’s shop page as a customer would
2. Add a product to the cart and proceed to checkout
3. Fill in the checkout form with your own details
4. Complete the payment
5. Check whether the order appears in WooCommerce → Orders
6. Check whether you receive the order confirmation email

This tells you exactly where the process breaks down. If the order appears but you don’t get an email, it’s an email issue. If the payment fails, it’s a gateway issue. If the order doesn’t appear at all, there may be a plugin conflict or server error.

Contact InnerMedia support if:

• Orders are consistently failing and you’ve confirmed the payment gateway is in Live mode
• You’re receiving orders but no notification emails are being sent (even after checking spam)
• The checkout page is showing error messages to customers
• Orders are going through but the amounts are wrong
• You see unexpected statuses on orders (e.g., all orders going to “On hold” when they should be “Processing”)
• You’ve changed nothing and orders that were working have suddenly stopped

Please contact InnerMedia support with as much detail as possible — including the order number (if available), the customer’s email, and any error messages shown. The more information you provide, the faster we can diagnose and resolve the issue.