Most Constellation problems come from a handful of causes: how and when a membership was created, caching, your site’s timezone, and emails that aren’t turned on. Find your symptom below, or search this page for the message you see.
When you’d use this
- A customer paid but isn’t a member, or a member can’t see their content.
- Members-only content shows to visitors.
- Membership emails aren’t arriving, or arrive on the wrong day.
- You see a Constellation notice in your admin and want to know what it means.
Before you start
Run through these first. They solve most reports:
- Use a city timezone. Under Settings » General, set Timezone to a city (such as New York) rather than a UTC offset, so drips, end dates and emails follow daylight saving time.
- Check caching. Page caching serves one copy of a page to everyone, which can show members-only content to visitors or lock members out.
- Check emails are on. Membership emails are off by default under WooCommerce » Settings » Emails.
- Check the membership itself. Open the customer under Constellation » Members and look at the status, start date and end date.
Joining and access
A customer bought the membership but isn’t a member
- The order must be Processing or Completed. Orders that are pending payment or on hold don’t create memberships yet.
- The order must belong to a customer account. Constellation requires an account at checkout when a membership product is in the cart, but orders you create in the admin for a guest don’t get a membership.
- The product (or the variation bought) must be linked to the plan, on the product’s Grant Access tab or the plan’s Products field.
- For orders placed before you linked the product, use Grant Access on the plan (Create membership plans in Constellation).
A member can’t see content their plan includes
- The status must give access: Active, Complimentary, Free Trial or Pending Cancellation. Delayed, Paused, Expired and Cancelled don’t.
- The rule may be dripped. Check Accessible on the plan’s rule, or the post’s rules in its Constellation panel.
- They may be logged in as a different account from the one that bought the membership.
- Caching may be serving them the visitor’s copy (below).
Members-only content shows to everyone, or members are locked out
Caching plugins, host caching and CDNs can serve a page cached for one visitor to everyone. Exclude members-only pages from the cache, or turn off page caching for logged-in users. If you’re not sure, deactivate the caching plugin briefly and test again; if that fixes it, set up the exclusions before turning it back on.
Also check the item doesn’t have Disable restrictions turned on in its Constellation panel, which keeps it public whatever the plans say.
Dripped content opens on the wrong day
Delays count from the member’s start date, in your site’s timezone. Set a city under Settings » General » Timezone. For memberships created by import, check the imported start dates and Dates Timezone.
Non-members can’t buy the membership product
A product restriction covers it, such as a rule on all products or on its category. Open the product’s Constellation box and turn on Disable restrictions. Constellation warns you about this when you save a plan: "It looks like that you have restricted one or more products that could grant access to this plan: this could make it impossible for shop customers to become members via purchase."
A member’s discount doesn’t apply
The member must be logged in, with a membership that gives access, and the discount rule must be Active. The product may be set to Disable discounts, or on sale while Exclude products on sale from member discounts is on.
Admin screens
The setup wizard or the Constellation panel won’t save
Constellation’s setup wizard, and the Constellation panel and box in the post and product editors talk to your site through the WordPress REST API at /wp-json/ on your domain’s root. They can’t load or save when:
- Settings » Permalinks is set to Plain. Choose any other structure.
- WordPress runs in a subfolder, such as
example.com/shop/. For now, use plan rules on Constellation » Plans instead of the editor panel; the plan screens work either way.
A security plugin or firewall that blocks the REST API for logged-in admins has the same effect.
"Constellation is not compatible with WooCommerce Memberships. Please deactivate WooCommerce Memberships to use Constellation."
Constellation doesn’t run while WooCommerce Memberships is active. Deactivate WooCommerce Memberships; if you’re moving from it, follow Move from WooCommerce Memberships.
"WooCommerce Memberships data was detected in your installation"
Constellation found WooCommerce Memberships 1.x data and offers to migrate it. Back up your site, then click Migrate to Constellation. If the migration was interrupted, click Resume migration.
"This plan cannot be moved to trash because it has active members"
Cancel, move or delete the plan’s active memberships under Constellation » Members first.
"WooCommerce Subscriptions is loading the Recurring Billing functionality"
WooCommerce Subscriptions is active and runs recurring billing. Its settings are under WooCommerce » Settings » Subscriptions.
Emails
Membership emails aren’t sent
Turn the email on under WooCommerce » Settings » Emails (only Membership note is on by default), and check the plan’s Email Content tab has text for it. If the store sends no WooCommerce emails at all, it’s an email delivery problem; an SMTP plugin usually solves it.
Ending soon emails aren’t sent to recurring billing members
They’re skipped for memberships tied to recurring billing, which renew on their own. Use Enable Reminders under the Recurring billing settings for renewal reminders.
The renewal link says "Your renewal token has expired"
Renewal links work for 30 days after the email. The member logs in and renews from My Account » Memberships.
Recurring billing
A membership was paused after a payment
The renewal payment failed or is waiting, so the recurring billing went on hold ("Membership paused because subscription was put on-hold."). It becomes Active when the payment is made.
Payment methods are missing at checkout
For a recurring billing product, checkout only shows payment methods that support recurring payments. Enable a gateway that does.
Privacy
Erasure requests keep memberships
The Remove memberships on request setting doesn’t take effect, so the erasure report lists each membership as retained. Delete the customer’s memberships by hand under Constellation » Members after processing the request.
Inactive account cleanup and active members
WooCommerce can delete inactive customer accounts under WooCommerce » Settings » Accounts & Privacy » Personal data retention (Retain inactive accounts). That cleanup doesn’t skip accounts with an active membership, so leave it off if members may go a long time without logging in.
Get help
If you’re still stuck, contact us with a description of the problem and your system status report from WooCommerce » Status.