Easy Digital Downloads support

How to manually create a license key

License keys can be manually created through the Manual Purchases extension. Since license keys are tied directly to purchase record, a payment needs to be recorded in order to generate a license key.

Using Manual Purchases, you can create a 0.00 purchase for the customer. Doing so will also generate a license key for them.

Additional resources

• Software Licensing – Usage Instructions
• Software Licensing API
• Software Licensing - Common Issues and FAQs
• Complete Software Licensing documentation

Update nag shows after update

This most likely happened because you missed updating one of the version numbers. When releasing new versions of the plugin, there are three version numbers you need to update:

1. The version in the plugin header
2. The version passed to the EDD_SL_Plugin_Updater.php class
3. The version number on the product edit screen in EDD.

Once you update all three, the update notification should go away when installing new versions.

Additional resources

• Software Licensing – Usage Instructions
• Software Licensing API
• Software Licensing - Common Issues and FAQs
• Complete Software Licensing documentation

Editing the Stripe statement descriptor

The statement descriptor is the short description that shows up on a bank statement alongside the charge. When your customers purchase your products through Stripe, they will most certainly see your statement descriptor. This should not be a source of confusion.

Depending on your settings, your product type, any custom code you may be using, and Stripe itself, the statement descriptor for a charge could be any one of multiple variants. For a better customer experience, it's best to take control of this descriptor to ensure clarity.

To learn more about the multiple ways you can control your statement descriptor, read the following documentation.

Additional resources

• Stripe Pro - Setup Documentation
• Stripe - Common Issues and FAQ

Troubleshooting payment gateways

For help related to setting up the payment gateways included in Easy Digital Downloads, please review the following articles:

• Stripe Standard - Setup Documentation
• Stripe - Express Checkout (Apple Pay / Google Pay)
• Stripe - Test Purchases
• Stripe - Common Issues and FAQ
• PayPal Standard
• PayPal payments not marked as Complete
• Amazon Payments Overview
• Amazon Payments Common Issues and FAQ
• What does "Pending" mean? Is there a problem?

Email receipt/sale notifications not being sent

Email delivery failures are usually solved at the host level. Even if certain emails on your site are sending properly while others aren't, chances are the culprit is your host's email delivery reliability, and not the plugin responsible for the email itself.

If delivery of your Easy Digital Downloads emails appear to be failing, follow the steps below for initial troubleshooting:

1. Check to see if any WordPress emails are being delivered. To do this, visit a login form on your site and click the "Forgot Password" link so that WordPress sends you a password recovery email. If you do not receive this email, contact your host to inform them of the email delivery issue.
2. If the above test properly delivers an email, complete an Easy Digital Downloads test purchase on your site, ensure that the purchase record has a status of Complete, and check to see if you receive a Purchase Receipt email. If you do not see the email in your inbox, be sure to check your spam folder.
3. If your Easy Digital Downloads Purchase Receipt was not delivered, install a free email logging tool such as WP Mail Logging, complete another test purchase with Easy Digital Downloads, and then check the email logging to see if the Purchase Receipt email is said to have been delivered properly, or if there is an error logged related to the delivery of that email.
4. If the above tests result in email delivery failure without any logged errors, Easy Digital Downloads emails or otherwise, consider using third party email delivery, such as SendWP, as these services are likely to be more reliable than your host. For more information about reliable email delivery, please read this blog post.

Once you have gone through the above steps, please read our more detailed documentation for additional troubleshooting tips and solutions for email delivery failure.

Additional resources

• SendWP for Reliable Emails
• Payments not marked as complete
• How can I resend the purchase receipt?
• More reliable email delivery
• Email Settings

Why must users verify their accounts?

The account verification system is a critically important security feature which helps to ensure the security of your customer's accounts. In the same way that super simple passwords (like "12345") and basic user names (like "admin") are often not permitted, this feature cannot be turned off even by a site admin.

Whilst occasional users may be a little annoyed by having to verify their account, that slight annoyance pales in comparison to the emotions of a user who has their account compromised via a security hole on your website.

For more information on what triggers the user verification process, click the button below

Troubleshooting pagination issues

Pagination functionality can be quite sensitive, as it depends on query details, URL structure, and the like. While any number of things can interfere with pagination behavior, one of the most common issues is permalinks.

Go to Settings -> Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and simple save the page. You don't have to change anything. Once you've re-saved that page, visit the page on your site where you are having pagination issues, clear your browser cache, and test once again. That will most likely resolve the issue.

Collecting Sales tax or VAT

It's no secret that taxes can be extremely confusing and tough to manage. While Easy Digital Downloads does its best to keep tax configuration simple, tax code around the world is complex and requires special attention not only from our software, but from store owners.

If you are just getting started with your store, or you need to implement taxes for the first time, please be sure to take a look at our Tax Settings documentation for a description of the settings.

For most, the above tax settings are more than enough to ensure compliance with local tax laws. However, it's not uncommon for additional extensions to be used in order to meet special requirements, or just enhance the functionality.

At the moment, all tax-related extensions for Easy Digital Downloads are built by 3rd party developers. To see a list of them, view the Taxes section on our 3rd party extensions page.

Note: If you have a specific question about one of the 3rd party tax extensions, please contact the creator of the extension. We cannot provide direct support for 3rd party extensions.

WordPress 5.0 compatibility

WordPress 5.0 introduces a new content editor that is based on "blocks," or sections of content that serve various purposes. While the more familiar "Classic Editor" is still available for use until 2021, Easy Digital Downloads will periodically introduce enhancements and tools that take advantge of the new editor.

Please review the information below for details on where Easy Digital Downloads currently stands with the new WordPress 5.0 editing experience.

Is Easy Digital Downloads compatible with WordPress 5.0?

Yes. The new content editor will not affect the display of content on your site, including content related to Easy Digital Downloads. That means if you update to WordPress 5.0 (never do so without saving a backup), your Easy Digital Downloads Pages will display just as they did before. The only change you will see is how your Pages are edited, as they will use the new editor.

Does the Add/Edit Download screen use the new editor?

No. As mentioned above, the Classic Editor is still fully supported in WordPress. For post types like the Download, the Classic Editor will remain the standard until we feel it is safe to commit to the new editor. Updating to WordPress 5.0 will not change the way you create new Downloads.

How do I use the [downloads] shortcode on a Page with the new editor?

You can continue to use the [downloads] shortcode in a WordPress Page just as you did before. For example, if you have added a "paragraph block" to your content, typing the shortcode into the paragraph will result in the same grid product display when you view the published page.

We have also introduced a new Easy Digital Downloads - Blocks plugin that allows you to add a product display grid through the new editor. The plugin is available in the official WordPress plugin directory.

Compatibility details and system requirements

In general, Easy Digital Downloads is compatible with any system that can properly run WordPress itself. You can see WordPress' requirements and recommendations here. Please note, however, that with several components involved in a typical eCommerce ecosystem, staying up-to-date across all systems is highly recommended.

Like WordPress, Easy Digital Downloads supports PHP 7.0+. Our extensions and themes aim to be compatible as well. However, with such a large catalogue, it is possible that some extensions/themes may throw warnings or errors. If you have already experienced an error on your live site, contact your host immediately to have your PHP version rolled back, then continue with our support form.

That said, we advise you to run updated versions of PHP, if possible. In doing so, your host may recommend that you perform a PHP compatibility test before updating PHP versions. When performing these tests, the compatibility tool may throw warnings for code that is no longer compatible with the latest versions of PHP. This usually happens because the aforementioned tools cannot read the context of code.

In all instances of using old or deprecated functions in our codebase, we try to wrap that code in a conditional check to make sure it only runs in the correct PHP environment. Compatibility checkers will not see that, and throw warnings anyway. You can simply look at the code referenced by the warning and see if it has a version compare conditional wrapped around it. If so, there is nothing to worry about.

If you are still unsure, feel free to continue with the support form. Be sure to provide us with the exact warnings/errors given by your compatibility checker tool.

Follow the instructions based on your scenario

I cannot access my site after updating or activating Easy Digital Downloads or one of its extensions.

I have access to my WordPress dashboard, but a particular page on the front-end of my site has crashed.

I've already reversed the fatal error. I just need to report what I've found.

Additional resources

• Helpful tips and troubleshooting techniques
• Before You Update
• The importance of having a staging site for your e-commerce business

Reporting security vulnerabilities

First, thank you for taking the time to report what you feel is a security vulnerability. We value feedback of all sorts from our community, especially from those who aim to make the ecosystem more stable for everyone involved.

Disclosing a security vulnerability is a sensitive process. We appreciate your cooperation and collaborative efforts as we work to address any issues.

Responsible disclosure

In order to ensure the safety of our users and provide a timely solution when necessary, we ask that you consider the following guidelines:

• Describe the vulnerability in detail. Let us know the precise steps to reproduce the vulnerability and whether or not you have an observable example.
• Avoid live examples of the vulnerability where possible. If it can be reproduced locally, or on a protected server, please do so there.
• Allow us reasonable time to dissect and address the vulnerability before public disclosure.

Qualifying vulnerabilities

Typically, the following types of vulnerabilities should be reported:

• Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
• Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
• Server Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
• Remote Code Execution (RCE)
• SQL Injection (SQLi)

If the type of vulnerability you are reporting is included above, or you believe that it should be, please proceed, keeping our responsible disclosure guidelines in mind. Thank you!

Assistance with custom code

Easy Digital Downloads is a complex ecosystem. With hundreds of released extensions providing a wide range of functionality, there's a chance the tools you need to run your business already exist.

However, it is not uncommon to need tweaks to existing extensions, custom functionality, or even entirely new extensions that no one has thought of yet. While we promote the idea of modifying the ecosystem to your needs, this is not something we have the ability to help you with. We cannot assist you with custom development in support.

We do have a GitHub repo that is a dedicated custom code library. We do not provide technical support for these code snippets, though we do attempt to make sure they remain usable over time.

Feel free to browse the custom snippets which are free to use.

If you simply need information about how Easy Digital Downloads is written, our available APIs, hooks (actions and filters), and more, please see our developer docs.

Also, we have a dedicated blog specifically for development articles where we publish details about updates to the codebase, new API versions, and even beta releases that help you prepare your code for changes to come, if you are a developer.

Please subscribe to the developer blog if you haven't already done so.

If you still feel it is appropriate to open a support ticket for help with custom development, please keep in mind that we may not be able to provide assistance. We will certainly accept any suggestions about changes to our codebase, like filter requests or default style adjustments. But if you are trying to make a custom tweak to the functionality, it's best to hire a developer if you are not one yourself.

To hire a developer who is already familiar with the Easy Digital Downloads ecosystem, we recommend Codeable.

Additional resources

• Developer’s Intro to Easy Digital Downloads
• EDD REST API - Introduction
• Customize Easy Digital Downloads

Email already in use

This checkout error can occur in two situations. The first situation is by design. If a logged in customer attempts to complete a purchase using an email address that is attached to another customer's customer record, this error will occur and block the purchase.

While the first situation is by far the most common, the error can also occur as a result of a past bug in Easy Digital Downloads that is now fixed, but still troublesome in some older sites.

If you believe your site may be experiencing this error when it shouldn't, click the button below for details on how to resolve the issue.

Login to complete payment

There's a good chance that you are experiencing this checkout issue while testing your own guest purchase process. Occasionally, customers run into the issue when trying to complete the checkout process.

In either scenario, there is a reason why it happens. Please click the button below to see the details.

Cart is empty at checkout

The shopping cart system makes it possible for multiple users to enjoy their own virtual "basket" and checkout process on your site. For it to work the same for all visitors at all times, it has to be flexible.

One of the most common issues with online shopping carts is that if any step in the process loses its ability to change based on user actions, the entire system fails.

If the shopping cart on your site is always empty, despite adding products to the cart, some part of the system has failed for any number of reasons. Please click the button below to start troubleshooting based on the most common threats to the system.

Additional resources

• WP Engine Cache Exclusion for Checkout Page
• W3 Total Cache Configuration
• WP Super Cache Configuration
• Hyper Cache Configuration
• Preventing empty cart messages with Varnish

Files not protected from unauthorized users

By default, Easy Digital Downloads will protect most product files from unauthorized users. Unless your product files are image or audio file types, they should be protected.

There are instances where certain server configurations or other factors affect our ability to properly protect your files. If your files are not properly protected, please familiarize yourself with how the system works and what things need to be considered in order to protect your files.

Additional resources

• Modifying EDD .htaccess file rules
• Selling images with EDD
• Protecting File Downloads on WP Engine
• Protecting File Downloads on Pantheon
• Download Files Not Protected on NGINX

Fixing strange HTML in product titles

This happens because of an incorrect implementation of a WordPress function in your theme. In many cases, this problem will go unnoticed. But because Easy Digital Downloads dynamically enhances your product titles (as well as other product content) so that search engines know that they are indexing an actual product, implementation of that enhancement exposes the flaw in the theme.

For an in-depth understanding of the issue, see: Use the_title() and the_title_attribute() Correctly.

Additional resources

• Will Easy Digital Downloads work with my theme?
• How to Build Single Product Templates

How to request a refund

We firmly believe in and stand behind our products 100%, but we understand that it cannot work perfectly for everyone all of the time. We are more than happy to provide a complete refund within 30 days of your original purchase.

Before asking for a refund, please allow us to try and resolve any difficulties you are experiencing by clicking Technical Issues above and opening a support ticket describing the problem.

If you still feel that you must request a refund, please be sure to read our terms before proceeding.

How to cancel a subscription

You are free to cancel a subscription at any time. All you need to do is visit your account and you can manage your subscriptions by going to the Subscriptions tab.

Cancelling a subscription will prevent automatic renewal payments from processing. However, associated license keys will remain valid until their expiration dates.

Additional resources

• Can I upgrade my licenses?

Troubleshooting extension update issues/failures

Updating your purchased extensions should be a smooth process just like any other in-dashboard update through WordPress. However, there are things that can complicate the process. Let's take a look at a few potential issues and their solutions.

Errors while updating extension(s):

Three of the most common errors encountered while updating extensions are listed below:

• Update package not available
• Automatic update not available for this plugin
• Download failed: Unauthorized

If you run into any of these errors, please go to Downloads -> Settings -> Licenses (tab) in your WordPress dashboard and double check the license key entered for the extension failing to update. To verify your license keys, you can log into your account to see the correct license keys listed below each of their respective extensions.

Additional resources

• How do I get updates for extensions?
• How do I get beta versions of extensions?
• Updates don’t show up for my extensions
• Extension License Key Settings

How to manage license key URLs

All Easy Digital Downloads license keys have the ability to track which sites they are being used on. Depending on which license level you purchased, your license may work on one site, up to five sites, or unlimited sites.

Typically, activating and deactivating your license on your site is enough to attach or detach a specific site URL. However, there are times when this needs to be done manually. At any time, you can manage this buy going to your account page, navigating to the Licenses tab, and clicking on Manage Sites for any license.

If you activate your license on domains with the following formats, we will attempt to prevent that activation from counting against your uses:

• dev.domain.com
• staging.domain.com
• domain.dev
• domain.local

Depending on server configuration, even using the above subdomains and top level domains will still result in license uses. If this occurs, simply contact us and request to have your development domain name whitelisted to avoid complications.

Additional resources

• License Renewal Information
• Can I upgrade my licenses?
• Extension license key settings

Transfer license keys

Generally, an extension purchase not only issues a license, but it also starts an annual subscription. Because subscriptions are tied to personal financial information, these types of purchases cannot be transferred between users.

If your developer purchased a license that you now maintain, or you are a developer looking to transfer your license to a client, it's best to have the license/subscription owner cancel the current subscription, which will leave the license key valid until its expiration date. The owner of the site can continue to use the license until it expires. At that point, he or she can then purchase a new license/subscription.

While this is not an actual transfer, it allows both parties to get the most use out of a purchased license. If you would like to go ahead and cancel a current subscription, you can do so on your account page.

Additional resources

• License Renewal Information
• Can I cancel my subscription(s)?
• Terms and Conditions

How to get new download links

As long as your license is valid for an extension, you can log into your account at any time and get a fresh download link for your purchase.

Be sure to log in using the email address you purchased the plugins with. If you do not remember your password, you can use the Lost Password link to reset your password using the same purchase email.

How to generate an invoice

At any time, you can generate your own invoice for a past purchase. All you need to do is visit the account page and click the "Generate Invoice" link that corresponds with the appropriate purchase.

If you need to create an account first, make sure you register with the same email address that you used to make the previous purchase(s).

Additional resources

• License Renewal Information
• Can I cancel my subscription(s)?
• Terms and Conditions

Account Management

If you have ever purchased an extension or theme from Easy Digital Downloads, even if it was free, you should already have a user account on our site. The email address used to make your purchase can be used as your username. Your password was emailed to you.

At any time, you can log into your account to see your purchases, your license keys, your subscriptions, and more. You can also do things like update your payment method for subscriptions, cancel subscriptions, or even upgrade your purchases to something that better fits your needs.

Additional resources

• Can I upgrade my licenses?
• Can I cancel my subscription(s)?

Free trials for extensions

We do not offer trial versions of our premium extensions, but we do have a 30 day money-back guarantee, allowing you to purchase any extension risk free.

You have up to 30 days after purchasing to determine if purchased extensions are right for you. If you determine they do not suit your needs, you may request a refund at any time within the first 30 days after purchase.

Additional resources

• Can I cancel my subscription(s)?
• Terms and conditions

Selling physical products with Easy Digital Downloads

The first thing to note is that Easy Digital Downloads was built specifically for selling digital products. So most of the feature set and extension catalogue is focused on functionality needed to facilitate digital sales.

That said, selling physical products is not completely out of the question. For the most part, a physical product can be set up just the same as a digital product. The difference is that physical products usually need to be shipped to the customer. For that, the Simple Shipping extension is needed.

Additional resources

• Can I sell physical products with Easy Digital Downloads?
• Integration Guide: Frontend Submissions and Simple Shipping

Theme compatibility with Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads is designed to work with any WordPress theme. The eCommerce components that display on the front end of your site will either inherit styles from your chosen theme, or will be styled by default.

Some themes are built with Easy Digital Downloads in mind, meaning the themes have enhancements that take full advantage of features and capabilities of the ecosystem. Many of those themes are listed on our themes page, and are a great start. But you are not required to use one of them.

Choose a theme based on your design preferences first. Enhancements for Easy Digital Downloads are a bonus, but are not completely necessary.

Additional resources

• Will Easy Digital Downloads work with my theme?
• How to Build Single Product Templates
• How to Edit the Download Archive
• Download Category and Tag Templates

WooCommerce compatibility

Easy Digital Downloads is not a tool for use with WooCommerce. Easy Digital Downloads itself is an eCommerce plugin that provides comparable functionality to WooCommerce. The two plugins do not integrate, though they will not clash either. Furthermore, Easy Digital Downloads extensions cannot be used with WooCommerce, and WooCommerce extensions cannot be used with Easy Digital Downloads.

Having both Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce installed on your website will not result in any technical issues, for the most part. They can work alongside each other. But they do not work with each other.

Additional resources

• Migrating from WooCommerce to Easy Digital Downloads
• Can I run WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads at the same time?

Choosing membership functionality

Easy Digital Downloads itself is not a membership plugin, though it has some capabilities, with the help of extensions, that allow the ecosystem to perform much like a membership site.

The main thing to understand is that Easy Digital Downloads has its own shopping cart system as a dominant feature, while dedicated membership plugins expect customers to go through a completely separate checkout process in order to purchase a membership. Alongside each other, especially when membership status is supposed to determine access to products, this approach can be redundant.

If you need a membership site, but you also need eCommerce functionality, the goal should be to integrate the two so that functionality in one component lends to the other. The scenarios below may help you choose a path.

Easy Digital Downloads + All Access extension

Easy Digital Downloads + Content Restriction extension

Easy Digital Downloads + Recurring Payments extension

Additional resources

• Sell All Access Memberships with EDD All Access
• Sell access to content with Content Restriction

Selling custom codes/ license keys with Software Licensing

While Software Licensing is a tool designed to make it easy for you to provide updates of your software to customers, it can be used in other ways once you understand its functionality.

One of the most common ways to use Software Licensing outside of its original purpose is to distribute preset, custom codes/license keys to those who purchase your products. This is definitely possible as Software Licensing is already set up to handle your list of custom codes.

Please read the following documentation for a better understanding of how to distribute preset codes/license keys with Software Licensing.

Additional resources

• Software Licensing - Custom License Key Formats

Selling images with Easy Digital Downloads

While it is possible to sell image files with Easy Digital Downloads, there are things that must be understood before you get started. Mainly, you need to understand that image files are not hidden from unauthorized viewers when uploaded as product files.

Uploading a .zip product file, for example, will result in the the file being protected from unauthorized downloaders. However, we do not automatically protect image and audio files as that would have adverse effects on your entire site.

Please read the following documentation for a better understanding of what it means to sell images with Easy Digital Downloads.

Additional resources

• Modifying EDD .htaccess file rules
• Protecting File Downloads on WP Engine
• Protecting File Downloads on Pantheon
• Download Files Not Protected on NGINX
• Selling images with EDD

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Yes. Easy Digital Downloads is a GDPR-compliant eCommerce plugin that takes advantage WordPress' tools for exporting and erasing personally identifiable information.

For more information about our features regarding GDPR, please see the following documentation.

Additional resources

• Easy Digital Downloads and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Easy Digital Downloads 2.9.2 (and higher) GDPR tools for developers

General Information

Easy Digital Downloads has a robust ecosystem that includes hundreds of official and 3rd party extensions (plugins). Admittedly, finding all of the information you need to move forward can be a bit overwhelming. Here are a few tips:

• Browse our extensions catalogue and use its search feature to find extensions that meet your needs. Use specific keyword phrasing and/or brand names to find what you need.
• All extension purchases are annual subscriptions that will automatically renew every year. At any time, you may cancel a subscription which will prevent it from renewing. However, the license key you were given along with your purchase will remain valid until its original expiration date. So you may cancel a subscription and continue to receive support and updates for the entire year period. See our terms & conditions for more information.
• While our extension catalogue covers a wide range of functionality, there are some areas of functionality where we do not provide any tools. If you do not see an extension that you need in our catalogue, be sure to check the 3rd party extensions page.

You may also browse our documentation for a deeper understanding of Easy Digital Downloads and its extensions.