Free Downloads – Easy Digital Downloads

Version 2.4.0 — October 8, 2025

Important: The new minimum requirements for Free Downloads are PHP 7.4, WordPress 6.0, and Easy Digital Downloads 3.3.0.
Admin: Editing a free download now works seamlessly with EDD’s updated download editor.
Auto Register: Improved integration with EDD’s auto register option.
Cache: Improved user experience when clearing a download cache.
Cache: Improved cache handling when free downloads are stored with a remote service.
Checkout: The free download experience has been updated with an improved modal for both desktop and mobile users.
Checkout: Fixed the privacy policy validation.
Checkout: All checkout flows have been rewritten for performance and consistency.
Compatibility: Code throughout has generally been updated for EDD 3.x, for better performance.
Direct Download: The direct download flow is now handled consistently between display and checkout.
Emails: When deferred order actions were disabled, disabled purchase receipt emails could still send.

Version 2.3.16 — August 20, 2024

Admin: The quick docs link on the Free Downloads settings screen links to the relevant docs.
Assets: For sites with manually created Free Downloads links outside of the content, there is now a setting to load the Free Downloads script on every page load.

Version 2.3.15 — July 10, 2024

Checkout: Logged in users could be redirected to an outdated confirmation page in error.
Checkout: Fixes an issue with free orders not having an email address set for logged in users.
Emails: Fixes the default email content for the verification email.
Scripts: Updates the script handling for variable products with a free option.

Version 2.3.14 — June 27, 2024

Emails: Disabling the core EDD purchase confirmation could cause a fatal error after the order was completed, preventing the after order actions from running.
Download verification: if user verification is required, errors were not properly displayed on the Free Downloads form.
Settings: The extension settings have been updated for email management.
Dev: Asset handling has been improved by loading scripts and styles only when needed.

Version 2.3.13 — June 15, 2024

Fixed: The free download verification email tag did not always return the correct link.

Version 2.3.12 — June 6, 2024

Emails: Improved email integration with Easy Digital Downloads
Compatibility: Improved JavaScript compatibility.

Version 2.3.11 — April 10, 2024

Checkout: EDD core terms and privacy policies are used when enabled for free downloads.
Checkout: The extension checkout templates have been updated to be more consistent and to work with manual download links.
Download Archives: The free downloads button did not work on product archives such as the shortcode or block.
Custom Download Files: Adding a custom archive file to a download has been updated to be more clear.
Custom Download Files: An incorrect value here could cause a fatal error when attempting to download a file.
Administration: The download editor settings have been updated for consistency with EDD 3.x and to remove some conflicts with other extensions.
Administration: The free downloads settings screen has been updated for EDD 3.x compatibility.
Integrations: Setting an email marketing integration to be checked by default did not check the signup by default.
Dev: The new minimum requirements are PHP 7.1, WordPress 5.4, and EDD 3.1.5.

Version 2.3.10.2 — September 1, 2022

Improvement: Updates how logged in users are managed when downloading a free product.

Version 2.3.10.1 — August 17, 2022

Fix: In certain situations, a fatal error could happen with some newsletter extensions.
Dev: Update how licensing is instantiated.

Version 2.3.10 — March 4, 2021

Fix: Email verification triggering unexpectedly when user registration is enabled.
Fix: When verification email fails to send, the button gets stuck on “Please Wait…”
Fix: PHP deprecation notice.
Fix: Software Licensing – License keys not generated when “Bypass if Logged In” is enabled.
Fix: ActiveCampaign – customers not getting added to list.
Fix: GetResponse – customers not getting added to list.
Fix: Auto Register – Users still incorrectly registered when “Bypass Auto Registration” is enabled.
Tweak: Update plugin author / URI.
Dev: EDD 3.0 compatibility.

Version 2.3.8 — July 19, 2019

Fix: Corrected an issue with a CSS comment that invalidated some styles.
Fix: When bypass if logged in is selected and a user is logged in, non-variable priced products could cause orders with no products on them.

Version 2.3.9 — July 19, 2019

Fix: When logged in on mobile and the Admin Bar is visible, an additional whitespace is created at the top of the page.
Fix: On mobile, scrolling was sometimes prevented on pages that contained free download buttons.

Version 2.3.7 — April 26, 2019

Fix: Corrected a case where a user who entered their email address would erroneously be told that an invalid item was specified when using the auto download complete handler.

Version 2.3.6 — April 23, 2019

Fix: Corrected an issue that allowed direct download for logged in users to bypass free product checks.

Version 2.3.5 — November 21, 2018

Fix: Emails not subscribed in MailChimp if email verification is enabled.
Fix: First and last name not set on new user accounts when user registration is enabled

Version 2.3.4 — July 25, 2018

Fix: Improved reliability of subscribing users to MailChimp when they opt in for free downloads.

Version 2.3.3 — June 13, 2018

Fix: MailChimp integration was giving inconsistent results from non-free purchases.
Fix: Some hooks were missing from the purchase link if the user was logged in.
Fix: Privacy policy checkbox was not showing on the free downloads modal.

Version 2.3.2 — May 19, 2018

Fix: JS error when Direct Download is enabled and product has variable prices.

Version 2.3.1 — May 14, 2018

Fix: Email verification mode on mobile was showing JSON code instead of ajax-returning it.

Version 2.3.0 — April 23, 2018

New: Added Privacy Policy checkbox to Free Downloads (Requires EDD 2.9.1).
New: Removed dependency of Dashicons from the front end.
New: JavaScript files are now loaded in the footer, for improved page load speeds.
New: Email Opt-in checkbox is now unchecked by default, with a setting to enabled it to be checked by default.
Fix: Added ‘loading’ state between overlay and modal form loading, to improve UX on slower connections.
Fix: Variable priced items were not presenting the Free Downloads form on mobile.
Fix: PHP Notices were being generated when the users clicked the bypass link when information was not required.

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