Problem creating 288K Variations

Hi @pgilpat,

It sounds like the issue might be related to server limits when handling large imports. Please try increasing max_execution_time, memory_limit, and relevant database settings, or reach out to your hosting support for assistance.

You could also try:

• WP-CLI for importing – This avoids timeouts and memory issues compared to web-based imports.
• Splitting CSV files into smaller batches – Importing 500-1000 products at a time may work more reliably.

If the issue persists, it may require a custom solution. Consulting a developer with experience in large-scale WooCommerce migrations could help ensure a smooth process.

Let us know how it goes!

Hello @mahfuzurwp,

The problem we are having is with creating variations. With each product having 5 attributes it requires 72 variations and ultimately nearly 300,000 total variations and it takes forever and finally just stops. It has successfully worked with 100 products and once with 500 products but cannot process 1,000 products. Not sure what to do with the SQL, but it is taking many CPU resources.

We are going to try this product to see if we can gain anything. Have upped the resources you discussed.

Hello pgilpat,

Thank you for your reply.

I understand that each product has 5 attributes, requiring 72 variations, and with 1,000 products, this results in nearly 300,000 total variations, causing high CPU usage and failure during processing.

I recommend reducing the number of variations, as this setup will make your store very resource-intensive.

Please share more details about the product attributes and how they result in 72 variations per product. A screenshot of your CSV sheet or another format would help me better understand the structure and suggest an optimized approach.

Looking forward to your response. ??

Here you go

https://www.hostworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/1500-02.19.25-Short.csv

Hello pgilpat,

Thank you for your reply.

I checked the CSV file you shared. I noticed that the Price column is empty for all products.

I was going to suggest creating variations only for products that have different prices.
For example:
I sell shirts in my store, for me the color of the shirt does not affect the price.
The size of the shirt does affect the price.
So I would create three variations based on small, medium, and large sizes.
I would leave color as a Custom Product Option. This way color will still appear as a dropdown but not as a variation.

So customers can choose a large variation and select red from the Custom Product Option.
In the order details, I will get Large + Red shirt as an order.

For product options, I recommend Extra Custom Product Options for WooCommerce.

Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions. ??

Best regards.

I don’t think you are understanding the problem. We didn’t include price on the spreadsheet just because we are focusing just getting the variations to simply be created without stopping along the hours of this process. How does anyone get this process of building the variations? This has become maddening. It doesn’t appear to be a resource issue. The debug.log attached here is talking about a deadlock error. What do you make of this? This is just from the start of the day to current. There are many thousands of these.

https://staging.klemcoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Feb23Logs.txt

This file should illustrate the 72 variations for one product.

https://staging.klemcoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/OA22.csv

Hi @pgilpat,

As @mahfuzurwp mentioned, this issue still appears to be related to server resources and usage. The most effective approach for handling such a large number of variations is to use WP CLI. While increasing max_execution_time, memory_limit, post_max_size, and upload_max_filesize to their maximum values may help, it’s not always the best solution.

A better approach is to utilize WP CLI or the WooCommerce REST API for importing variations instead of relying on CSV files. This requires writing a script that interacts with the WooCommerce REST API, allowing variations to be processed in manageable batches automatically.

Alternatively, you could implement a job queue system using a plugin like WP All Import Pro with cron jobs to handle the import process more efficiently.

If you need professional assistance, I’ll advise consulting WooExperts.