---
title: Troubleshooting WooCommerce Exports
description: WooCommerce export not working? Fixes for no orders in the export, freezes or timeouts on large stores, and endless downloads.
url: "https://wpfactory.com/docs/products-order-export-for-woocommerce/"
updated: "2026-09-27"
category: Troubleshooting
---

# Troubleshooting WooCommerce Exports

If no orders appear in your export from Export Products, Orders & Customers for WooCommerce, your store most likely uses High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS). Go to WPFactory > Export > General, enable Confirm HPOS enabled under Advanced Options, save, and export again. Fixes for timeouts, endless downloads, and broken columns follow below.

### No orders appear in the export

**Cause:** your store uses WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS), so orders live in custom tables the default query does not read.

1. Go to **WPFactory > Export > General** (also reachable at **WooCommerce > Settings > Export**).
2. Under Advanced Options, enable **Confirm HPOS enabled** (`alg_wc_export_confirm_hpos`).
3. Save and export again.

### The export freezes or times out on large stores

**Cause:** too many items processed at once, or the server's time limit is reached.

1. Lower **Block Size** (default 1024) so fewer items are processed per iteration.
2. Set **Time Limit** to `0` for no time limit, or a positive number of seconds. Note that `-1` means the option is ignored and the server default is used.
3. For large product exports, enable **Ajax Download** (Product CSV only) so the file builds in the background.
4. Export in smaller date ranges from the dashboard if the store is very large.

### "Endless" download when clicking Download CSV or Download XML

**Cause:** a server or caching layer mishandles the Content-Length header.

1. Go to **General** and turn off **Content Length Header** (`alg_export_csv_send_content_length_header`).
2. Try the download again.

### A comma in the data splits into extra columns

**Cause:** a value contains the same character used as the CSV separator.

1. In **General**, set **CSV Wrap** to a double quote so values are wrapped, or change the **CSV Separator** to a character your data does not contain (for example a semicolon).
2. Re-export and open the file in your spreadsheet app, choosing the matching delimiter on import.

### Accented characters look wrong in Excel

**Cause:** the spreadsheet app did not detect UTF-8.

1. In **General**, make sure **UTF-8 BOM** is enabled (it is on by default).
2. Re-export and reopen the file.

### A team member cannot access the export

**Cause:** the User Capability required to export excludes them.

1. In **General**, set **User Capability** (`alg_export_csv_xml_user_capability`) to `manage_woocommerce` so shop managers can export in addition to administrators.
2. Avoid leaving this field blank, which would let anyone (including logged-out visitors) trigger an export.

### Still stuck?

Our team answers every ticket on the [Export WooCommerce support forum](https://wpfactory.com/support/item/export-woocommerce/).

Related articles

- [How to Control Who Can Export Your Store Data](https://wpfactory.com/docs/restrict-export-user-capability/)
- [Product Export Fields Reference](https://wpfactory.com/docs/product-export-fields-reference/)
- [Order and Order Item Export Fields Reference](https://wpfactory.com/docs/order-export-fields-reference/)
- [How to Export Your Store Data to XML](https://wpfactory.com/docs/export-woocommerce-xml/)
- [How to Run an Export from the Export Dashboard](https://wpfactory.com/docs/export-dashboard-date-ranges/)