WooCommerce Checkout Not Working? Here's How to Fix It Fast

A broken checkout stops customers at the worst moment. The spinner spins forever, the Place Order button does nothing, or shipping options never appear. Most of the time, it's caching, a page assignment, or a plugin conflict. Here's the short fix list.

Fix 1: Exclude Cart and Checkout From Caching (Most Common Cause)

If the checkout spinner spins forever, caching is the likely culprit. Cart and checkout pages hold customer session data. Full-page caching serves a stale copy and breaks the checkout.

Exclude these URLs from your caching plugin, host cache, and CDN:

/cart/
/checkout/
/my-account/

Also exclude these WooCommerce cookies:

woocommerce_items_in_cart
woocommerce_cart_hash
wp_woocommerce_session_

Then purge the cache. Test in a private window.

For more on this, see the WooCommerce guide on endless checkout spinners.

Fix 2: Check Page Assignments

Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Advanced. Confirm that Cart, Checkout, and My Account each have the correct page selected.

Then open the checkout page in the editor. Make sure it contains either:

• The shortcode [woocommerce_checkout], or
• The Checkout Block

If you recently switched from shortcode to block (or the other way), some payment gateways may stop working. Switch back and test.

Fix 3: Check URLs and SSL

Go to Settings → General. WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) must match exactly. Same domain. Same https://. Same www or no www.

If they don't match, checkout AJAX requests get blocked. Fix the URLs. Then go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes.

Fix 4: Test One Payment Gateway at a Time

If one gateway fails and another works, the problem is that integration—not WooCommerce itself.

• Check the gateway is set to Live Mode (or Test Mode if testing).
• Verify API keys and secret keys.
• Check webhooks in your Stripe or PayPal dashboard. If webhooks fail, WooCommerce never gets the payment confirmation.

Use the gateway's test mode. Don't place real orders repeatedly.

Fix 5: Check the Browser Console

Press F12 in your browser. Open the Console and Network tabs. Click Place Order.

Look for a red JavaScript error. It usually names the file and plugin causing the crash.

In the Network tab, look for a failed request to:

?wc-ajax=checkout

If that request returns 403 or 500, a security plugin, Cloudflare WAF, or a PHP timeout is blocking it. Click the request to see the server response.

Fix 6: Run a Quick Conflict Test

On staging, switch to a default theme (Storefront or Twenty Twenty-Four). Deactivate all plugins except WooCommerce and your payment gateway. Test checkout.

If it works, reactivate plugins one at a time. Test after each one. The plugin that breaks checkout is the culprit.

Start with these usual suspects:

• Checkout field editors
• Custom fee or discount plugins
• Currency switchers
• Shipping calculators
• Minification and script-delay tools
• Security plugins

After the Fix: Test One Full Order

Don't just assume it's fixed. Place one real order with a live payment method. Refund yourself after.

Check that:

• Order status changes from Pending Payment to Processing or Completed
• Customer and admin emails fire
• Refunds process correctly

If all three work, the checkout is fixed.

That's It

Most checkout problems come down to caching, page assignments, URL mismatches, or a plugin conflict. Work through the fixes in order. Change one thing at a time. Test after each change.