download after payment is secured

Hey @mindiapolis ! Good news is you don’t need any extra plugins for this, WooCommerce handles it natively.

Here’s the setup:

1. Edit your book product and in the Product data panel, tick “Downloadable” (and “Virtual” too since there’s nothing to ship). Then upload the book file under “Downloadable files.” You can also set a Download limit and Download expiry here if you want to limit re-downloads.
2. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Downloadable products and turn on “Grant access to downloadable products after payment.” This is the key bit, it makes the download available automatically as soon as payment goes through.
3. On that same settings page, set “File download method” to “Force downloads.” That keeps the real file URL hidden so people can’t just share a direct link. Avoid the “Redirect only (insecure)” option.
4. Make sure you upload the file from inside the product editor so it lands in the approved uploads folder. WooCommerce only serves downloads from trusted directories, so files stored elsewhere won’t work.

Once that’s done, run a quick test order. The customer will get the download link on the order confirmation page, in the order email, and under My Account > Downloads.

here are some docs if you want the details:

– Setting up a downloadable product: https://woocommerce.com/document/managing-products/virtual-downloadable/
– Downloadable product settings (delivery method, access after payment): https://woocommerce.com/document/digital-downloadable-product-handling/

Give that a go and let me know how the test purchase turns out!

Absolutely! take all the time you need. We’ll be here 🙂

Great, I’m glad to read that is fixed now!

If you have a few minutes, we’d love if you could leave us a review: https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/woocommerce/reviews/

Have a good one!