Cannot order categories alphabetically.

  • Resolved Jax2

    (@jax2)


    7 months, 3 weeks ago

    Hello all … this one is certainly a problem that is making me pull my hair out.

    No matter what I try to change in my woocommerce settings, either under products -> categories, appearance -> customize -> woocommerce -> product catalog, my categories will not show in alphabetical order. I’ve been searching google for 2 hours now and trying everything suggested, but nothing is working.

    Here is what happens on my end:
    * I click on products -> categories
    * I see a list of categories, and there is a 3 bar image on the left I can use to manually rearrange my categories. One category (US Postcards) is on the top of the list.
    * I click on “Name” which sorts the categories by name – just how I want them. Now the 3 bars are gone and I cannot drag/drop any categories. US Postcard category is now down near the very bottom where it should be.
    * I go back to my shop but the US Postcards category is still the first, followed by the last 7 categories I have created (in alphabetical order) before the remaining categories are shown.
    *I go back to admin panel, click on products -> categories and there is the US Postcard categories back on top again followed by those 6 most recently created, out of order categories.

    I do not understand why it keeps defaulting back to that order.

    Previously added categories are showing up where they are supposed to be, but every new category I make now (since the last 6 or so) stay up front on the list. I have disabled every active plugin and that made no difference. I cannot figure this one out.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Thread Starter Jax2

    (@jax2)

    Furthermore, sub-categories are not being put in alphabetical order either.
    For example, if you click on US Postcards, the order of the subcategories says:
    New York – Ohio – Nebraska – Florida – Michigan

    NY, OH, NE were the last 3 created, starting with NE and ending with NY. So they’re stuck in the order of creation and will not alphabetize.

    Thread Starter Jax2

    (@jax2)

    Hi again – have had a bit of an insight as to what part of the problem may be.

    Earlier today I installed a plugin. I thought that it would help organize the order of my categories easier, but all it did was change the order my categories appeared in the “Product Categories” on the “add new product” page. (See https://pasteboard.co/C7sVsHPBihkc.jpg )

    That is not what I wanted so I deactivated and deleted the plugin.

    Now, when I add a product and create a new parent category and/or subcategory for it, the parent category goes to the top of my categories list, and the subcategory goes to the top of the parent categories subcategories list, rather than alphabetically in the already existing subcategories.

    It seems as though the plugin I added (I cannot find it again so I am unsure of its name) did not fully get deleted when I deactivated and removed it. I’m almost positive that is why all new categories aren’t getting sorted as they should.

    Thread Starter Jax2

    (@jax2)

    Ok, so the plugin I installed was called Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order. Everything was fine before that. After deactivating and deleting, site is broken. It looks like the author of the plugin has not answered any help requests for quite some time now. Can anyone else help me get my site working again? From that plugin’s support forum, one person wrote the following:

    “But since a few weeks, we starting to see some problems with the categories. It randomly changes the order on refresh on page/posts editors, some categories appear twice or more, some don’t appear. The problem is also present with a simple REST api query.

    More about the REST API, after installing the plugin, the query parameter “orderby” no longer works.”

    Not even sure if that’s a clue or not but figured I’d add it.

    Plugin Support Shameem R. a11n

    (@shameemreza)

    Hi @jax2

    From your explanation, it seems like the Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order plugin has affected the default ordering of your categories. Even though you have deactivated and deleted it, some traces of its functionality might still affect your site.

    Here’s a few steps you can take to resolve this:

    1. Before making any changes, it’s always a good idea to backup your website.
    2. Navigate to your WordPress directory and check for leftover plugin files in the “wp-content/plugins” folder. If you find any, delete them.
    3. Delete the .htaccess file, go to Settings -> Permalinks, and click “Save Changes”. This can sometimes solve various issues.

    If none of the above steps helps, there might be a more complex issue. In that case, I recommend reaching out to a professional developer for more in-depth assistance.

    I hope this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.

    Plugin Support Shameem R. a11n

    (@shameemreza)

    Hi @jax2

    We’ve not heard back from you in a while, so I’m marking this thread as resolved. Hopefully, you were able to find a solution to your problem!

    If you have further questions, please feel free to open a new topic.

    Thanks!

    PLUGIN support

    Please

    This is a serious systemic problem with WordPress, please do not just close the topic. It needs to be escalated and the sorting

    either changed to alpha

    or an option to change between alpha and ID be provided.

    Thank you

    kind regards

    David Greenaway

    Plugin Support Moses M. (woo-hc)

    (@mosesmedh)

    Hi @sothebys,

    This issue isn’t related to WordPress or WooCommerce, but rather the ‘Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order’ plugin you installed, which has caused the problem on your site. Please reach out to the plugin author for an update on the issue.

    This forum is specifically for addressing WooCommerce core issues, requests, and bugs. If you have any questions regarding this, please feel free to ask.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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