WooCommerce Adds “-2” in all Product URLs

Tried creating a new product today. There is NO other product by that name. I’ve NEVER created a product by that name. Yet, WooCommerce is adding -2 again.

This is starting to anger me!

@woocommerce

@harishanker – you asked for the details. I provided it. Now you’ve gone silent, but the problem persists. What’s going on?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by jrothra.

@riaanknoetze & @harishanker —

Y’all said, “The ‘-2’ is typically used to separate it from other posts with the same title (not necessarily products, it could be pages or blog posts as far as I know).”

However, WC is adding this -2 to products even when there are NO posts, pages, or other products with the same name. So, that’s not the cause. For example, when I created “The Gospel in 1 Minute,” that title was completely unique to my site. Yet, WC added -2 to it because … well, I have no idea why.

This is irritating and infuriating at this point.

Hey @jrothra – I’ve caught up on your thread and I have a question for you:

When you have just Storefront and WooCommerce active, and you create a new product, does it still had -2 to your link? If you haven’t done this yet, please run a conflict test.

If products are created normally with just those two things active, you have a conflict on your hands. Then slowly reactivate every plugin/theme and retest to see which is the culprit.

If that doesn’t help, we’re going to need you to open a support ticket with us so that we can look into this further.

What is Storefront? Is it a theme or plugin? I use OceanWP for my theme.

I’ve tried countless tests, with and without all plugins deactivated (keeping WooCommerce only). The -2 still happened. It doesn’t occur all the time, though. If I create a product called, “This is my test product” then there’s no -2. However, when I use the actual titles, the -2 shows up.

The only place I can find a hint of a possible conflict is with media. Here’s why: products include the following:

Product Listing in the Store
Product Image
Sample Audio File

The file name for each is different. For example, my latest product, “In Christ Alone”

Product Listing
File Name: n/a
Title: In Christ Alone
URL: https://www.johnrothra.com/store/devotionals/in-christ-alone-2/

Product Image
File Name: In-Christ-Alone-John-14-vv-1-7.jpg
Title: In Christ Alone – John 14 vv 1-7
URL: https://www.johnrothra.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/In-Christ-Alone-John-14-vv-1-7.jpg

Sample Audio File
File Name: In-Christ-Alone-John-14-vv-1-7-Sample.mp3
Title: In Christ Alone
URL: https://www.johnrothra.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/In-Christ-Alone-John-14-vv-1-7-Sample.mp3

While the title of the audio file (which is not the same as the URL or file name) is the same as the product listing (which is in the URL), it shouldn’t be a conflict because (1) it’s media and (2) the URLs differ.

For the one above, I uploaded the media files first. I’ll test by uploading them after creating a product name.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by jrothra.

Okay, following your advice (except for Storefront), here’s what I discovered:

Apparently the “Title” of the audio file (which is not the same as the file name or the URL) is causing the conflict. Here’s how I discovered it.

Test 1
Created a product called “First Sample Test Product JLR” (to ensure uniqueness). No -2 in the URL.

I clicked “Add product image” and uploaded to files: an MP3 and a JPG (following the naming pattern described in my previous post). I put the JPG in the Product Image and added the MP3 to the short description. I clicked “Save draft” and the -2 showed up.

Test 2
As with test 1, I created the product, calling this one “Next Sample Test Product JLR.” However, I saved the draft before doing any media uploads. No -2 in the URL.

I then opened the media library in a new tab and uploaded the JPG. Then added it to the Product Image and clicked “Save draft.” No -2 in the URL.

I returned to the tab with the media library and uploaded the MP3. Going back to the product, I added the MP3 into the short description. I clicked “Save draft” and the -2 showed up.

Thus, it seems the “Title” of the audio file (not the file name or the URL) is conflicting with the URL of of the product. This doesn’t make sense to me since the URL names are different.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by jrothra.

Hi @jrothra,

Thanks for letting us know. I’ll mark this thread as resolved for now as finding out that the issue was related to the title of the audio file.