How to Remove WooCommere Orders

Do you need to remove WooCommerce orders with "Completed" status? Or you are moving from a shop with demo data to a new site and want to delete test records? In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to delete them one by one and in bulk. Also, we’ll show a solution to clean out thousands of orders real fast.

How to Remove an Order from WooCommerce

WooCommerce has the default functionality to delete orders (unlike many other shopping carts where you need to use some workarounds).

Open an order in the “Edit” mode and click the link “Move to trash”. Then go to the “Trash” section, check the row, and press “Empty Trash”:

Move WooCommerce order to trash — Press the "Move to trash" link to delete an order

Remove Order from Trash — Clear the Trash to delete order completely

How to Delete Many Orders from WooCommerce

Sometimes, there is a need to clear all orders, for instance, before order import.

To eliminate multiple orders from WooCommerce use the “Bulk Actions” tool.

In the WordPress admin, go to the “Orders” section to see all orders. Select the records you want to delete, then expand the “Bulk Actions” dropdown, and click “Move to Trash”:

WooCommerce Delete Multiple Orders — Delete multiple orders using bulk actions

To delete orders permanently, don’t forget to clean them out from trash:

It is worth mentioning, that deleting several orders wouldn’t be a problem. But removing large order lists consisting of 2,000 and more records can overload the server and cause an error.

You can solve the task programmatically by executing an SQL script (you can find examples on WordPress forums).

If you want a simpler and faster solution, consider using Store Manager for WooCommerce.

Deleting Multiple Orders in Seconds

Store Manager for WooCommerce is a desktop application providing tools for mass changes, advanced import/export, integration with Amazon, eBay, ICEcat, etc.

Store Manager is tailored for the execution of bulk changes in terms of functionality and speed. For instance, during our test, deleting 2,500+ orders via Store Manager took us 8-10 seconds compared to 3,5 min via the native WordPress admin.

Besides, being a desktop application, Store Manager executes most of the tasks locally. The result is sent to the server creating a minimum load on it.

If you don’t have Store Manager for WooCommerce yet, download a free trial, install the application, and connect it to your store database following the wizard inside the app.

When Store Manager is installed and connected, you’ll see all your data displayed under the “Catalog” tab. Click “Orders” to switch to the section:

WooCommerce Orders Section in Store Manager

Here you can see all orders from your online store. Select one or multiple rows that must be deleted. Use filters to find necessary records, for instance, if you want to delete only the orders with “Completed” status:

WooCommerce Orders for Deletion Filtered by Status

Then click “Delete selected records” on the toolbar or context menu:

Store Manager deletes WooCommerce order data from the database completely, so you don’t need to empty the trash.

Tip: Consider using the Bridge type of connection to your store database. It allows you to limit the number of requests to the server and thus avoid overloading it.

Now you know how to eliminate some of your orders or clean out the “Orders” list completely.

Use Store Manager to speed up bulk operations with orders and other entities in your shop!