How to Resolve the “Unpaid Order Cancelled – Time Limit Reached” Error in WooCommerce?

Are you seeing the error message “Unpaid order cancelled—time limit reached” on your WooCommerce store? This guide will help you understand what it is, why it happens, and how to fix it.

Running an online store on WooCommerce can sometimes be tricky, especially when unexpected errors happen. One such error that many store owners encounter is the “Unpaid order cancelled-time limit reached” message.

This error often appears when a customer places an order using PayPal but doesn’t complete the payment properly. As a result, the order is automatically marked as “cancelled,” which can lead to confusion and frustration, both for store owners and customers.

In this blog post, we’ll explain why this error occurs, what triggers it, and, most importantly, how you can resolve it. By the end, you’ll be able to ensure smooth transactions and minimize the risk of canceled orders due to this issue.

The root cause of this problem lies in WooCommerce’s inventory management system, specifically the Hold Stock feature. This feature is designed to temporarily hold stock for customers who place an order but have not yet paid for it.

Here’s how the feature works:

• When a customer places an order, WooCommerce marks it as “pending” and holds the stock for that item.
• The system waits for the payment to be processed, which can take a few minutes.
• If the payment isn’t completed within a specific time frame, WooCommerce assumes the customer is no longer interested and automatically cancels the order.

By default, WooCommerce is set to hold stock for 60 minutes. If the payment isn’t received within that time, the order status is changed to “cancelled,” and the system displays the message: “Unpaid order cancelled—time limit reached.”

While this feature can be helpful in preventing out-of-stock issues, it causes problems with payment gateways like PayPal, which might take slightly longer to complete a transaction than WooCommerce’s default 60-minute window allows.

When using PayPal as a payment method, there is often a delay between when the customer places the order and when the payment is confirmed. PayPal’s API may not immediately communicate the successful payment back to WooCommerce, causing the order to remain in “pending” status for longer than WooCommerce’s default hold time.

This happens due to the following reasons:

• For international transactions and transactions of new customers, PayPal may take a few extra minutes to process the payments. 
• There will be some processing delays for the payments when there is a high volume of transactions. 
• PayPal and WooCommerce might experience brief communication lapses, preventing the system from immediately marking the order as paid.

This becomes especially problematic when customers experience delays in completing their payment or when PayPal doesn’t immediately confirm the transaction.

Follow the below steps to fix the “Unpaid Order Cancelled – Time Limit Reached” error for canceled PayPal orders in WooCommerce.

Step 1: Go to WooCommerce Inventory Settings Page

Step 1: Go to the admin side of your WordPress store and navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory.

Step 2: Delete the Hold Stock Time Limit

From the WooCommerce Inventory settings page, you can see that the Hold Stock field is set to 60 minutes by default. If you are using WooCommerce stock management, you can disable this feature by leaving the field blank. Simply delete the value in the field and then save the changes.

This will ensure that there is no timeout when PayPal or any other payment tries to process the order automatically. Normally, the payment should be processed within a minute or two. PayPal and WooCommerce do not work very well together when the Hold Stock field has value in it. So, it is better to leave the field blank.

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still encountering issues with PayPal payments, there could be other underlying issues affecting the payment process.

In that case, we recommend:

• Checking your PayPal settings: Make sure your PayPal account is properly connected to WooCommerce and that there are no issues on PayPal’s end.
• Contact WebToffee support: If you’re using the WooCommerce PayPal plugin by WebToffee and the issue persists, contact our support team for further assistance.

Our support team is always available to help troubleshoot and resolve any problems you might be experiencing with WooCommerce and PayPal integration.

The “Unpaid Order Cancelled – Time Limit Reached” error occurs when WooCommerce’s Hold Stock feature automatically cancels orders that remain unpaid for more than 60 minutes. This is often problematic for PayPal transactions, which may take a little longer to process.

To resolve this error, simply remove the time limit on holding stock in WooCommerce’s inventory settings. This will allow orders to remain in pending status long enough for PayPal payments to be confirmed, avoiding cancellations.

We hope this guide helped you resolve the issue. If you’re still having trouble or want to improve your PayPal integration in WooCommerce, check out our PayPal plugin for WooCommerce.

If you found this article helpful, we’d love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts in the comments below.