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Understanding Yoast Duplicate Post and WooCommerce: Why Products Don't Copy and How to Fix It

31 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Yoast duplicate post

Content

If you use Yoast Duplicate Post with WooCommerce, you may have encountered a common and confusing issue: the ability to duplicate products suddenly disappears, or the duplication process doesn't work as expected. This article explains why this happens and provides the most reliable solutions based on community discussions.

The Core Issue: Two Duplication Features

The primary reason for confusion is that WooCommerce has its own built-in product duplication feature. Historically, Yoast Duplicate Post also worked on the 'product' post type. However, to prevent conflicts and user confusion, the Yoast Duplicate Post team made a significant change starting with version 4.1.

Intentional Change, Not a Bug: Support for duplicating WooCommerce products was intentionally removed from Yoast Duplicate Post by default. This decision was made because:

  • WooCommerce's native feature is specifically designed to handle complex product data, including variations, inventory, and metadata, which Yoast Duplicate Post does not fully support.
  • Having two "Duplicate" links on the product edit screen was misleading for users.
  • Many support requests for the plugin were actually related to issues with WooCommerce's own duplication process.

Common Symptoms and Their Causes

Users often report these specific problems, which are usually a direct result of this intentional separation:

  • "The duplicate option for products is missing!" This is the expected behavior after version 4.1. Yoast Duplicate Post is no longer enabled for the 'product' post type by default.
  • "Product variations are not copied." Even if you re-enable the plugin for products, it is not designed to copy variations, as they are stored in non-standard database tables specific to WooCommerce.
  • "ACF fields or custom taxonomies are missing in the copy." WooCommerce's native duplicator may handle this data better than Yoast Duplicate Post, which is optimized for standard WordPress post types.
  • "I see two duplicate links." This happens if you have manually re-enabled Yoast Duplicate Post for products while WooCommerce's feature is also active.

Recommended Solutions

Solution 1: Use WooCommerce's Native Duplication Feature (Recommended)

The simplest and most supported solution is to use the tool designed for the job. WooCommerce's built-in duplicator is accessible from the WordPress admin under Products > All Products. Hover over any product and click "Duplicate." This is the safest method to ensure all product data, including variations, is copied correctly.

Solution 2: Re-enable Yoast Duplicate Post for Products (Use with Caution)

If you rely on specific features of Yoast Duplicate Post (like 'Rewrite & Republish') for products, you can re-enable it using a code snippet. However, the Yoast Duplicate Post team does not recommend this, as their plugin may not support all WooCommerce product features.

To add the snippet, you must edit your theme's functions.php file or use a code snippets plugin.

function my_duplicate_post_for_products( $enabled_post_types ) {
    $enabled_post_types[] = 'product';
    return $enabled_post_types;
}
add_filter( 'duplicate_post_enabled_post_types', 'my_duplicate_post_for_products' );

Important Warning: If you use this snippet, be aware that product variations and other WooCommerce-specific data will likely not be duplicated. You may also see two duplicate links on your product screens.

Conclusion

The disappearance of duplication features for WooCommerce products is not a bug in Yoast Duplicate Post but an intentional design choice to improve the user experience and avoid conflicts. For the vast majority of users, the correct path is to use WooCommerce's own duplication tool. Only advanced users who understand the limitations should attempt to re-enable Yoast Duplicate Post for products using the provided code snippet.

If you continue to experience issues with duplicating products, ensure you are using the correct tool and check the WooCommerce documentation or support channels for help with their native duplication feature.

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