WooCommerce 11.0: what to check before you update

Major WooCommerce releases are where deprecated code finally goes away. Most stores update without a hitch, but the ones that don’t usually share a pattern: an extension or a snippet that relied on something the release removed.

This is the order we’d check things in, before the update button goes anywhere near the live store.

Take a backup you can actually restore

A backup only counts if you’ve restored it once. Make sure it includes the database, not just files, and that you know how long a restore takes on your host.

Update extensions before WooCommerce

Extension developers ship compatibility fixes ahead of a major release. Update them first, then read each changelog for a line about the new version.

• Look for extensions that haven’t been updated in a year. They’re the likeliest to break.
• Check that payment gateways declare support for the new version.
• Note any extension that still depends on the old order tables if you haven’t switched to HPOS.

Test checkout on staging

Copy the store to staging, update there, and place real test orders through every payment method you offer. Watch the cart, the checkout and the order emails.

Check your custom code

Snippets in functions.php or a snippets plugin are the most common cause of trouble after a major update. Turn on debug logging on staging and look for deprecation notices:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Notices land in wp-content/debug.log. Fix or remove anything that mentions a deprecated function, then switch debugging off again.

After you update

Update live in a quiet hour, place one real order, and keep an eye on the error log for the rest of the day.