Delete Old Out-of-Stock Products

Automatically delete WooCommerce products that are out of stock and older than a configurable period (default 18 months), including their associated product images. This plugin helps keep your store optimized by removing outdated products and freeing up disk space.

✅ Features

• Automatically runs daily via WordPress cron.
• Deletes WooCommerce products that:
  • Are out of stock.
  • Were published more than X months ago (configurable, default 18 months).
• Optionally deletes the product's featured image and gallery images.
• Returns 410 Gone status for deleted product URLs, improving SEO by telling search engines that products have been permanently removed.
• Protects WooCommerce placeholder images from being deleted.
• Preserves images used by multiple products or posts.
• Shows helpful statistics about eligible products for deletion.
• Includes option to manually run cleanup with status feedback.
• Simple configuration—just install, activate, and set your preferences.
• Fully compatible with the latest WooCommerce features, including HPOS.
• Clean activation and uninstallation, with scheduled events properly removed.
• Resource-efficient batch processing for minimal server impact.

🔧 Installation

1. Upload the plugin to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory:
   • Or install directly via the WordPress Plugins admin.
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
3. Configure the settings in WooCommerce → Delete Old Products.
4. The cleanup runs automatically once daily via WordPress cron.

📝 Requirements

• WordPress 5.6+
• WooCommerce 5.0+
• PHP 7.4+

🚀 How It Works

• On activation, a daily cron event is scheduled.
• Every day, the plugin:
  • Searches for published products older than your configured time period.
  • Deletes products that are marked as out of stock.
  • Optionally deletes the product's featured image and gallery images (while preserving WooCommerce placeholder images).
  • Permanently deletes the product from the database.
  • Tracks deleted product URLs to return a 410 Gone status when accessed.

⚙️ Configuration

Navigate to WooCommerce → Delete Old Products to configure:

• Product Age (months): Products older than this will be considered for deletion (if out of stock).
• Delete Product Images: Choose whether to delete product images or keep them when deleting products.
• Enable 410 Gone Status: Choose whether to track deleted products and return a 410 Gone HTTP status when their URLs are accessed.

The settings page also shows helpful statistics:

• Total number of products in your store
• Number of out-of-stock products
• Number of products older than your configured threshold
• Number of products eligible for deletion (both out of stock AND old)
• Number of tracked deleted products (when 410 feature is enabled)

You can also trigger a manual cleanup by clicking the "Run Product Cleanup Now" button at the bottom of the settings page.

📱 SEO Benefits of 410 Gone Status

When a product is deleted, the plugin (if enabled) will:

1. Track the product's URL
2. Return a proper 410 Gone status code when someone tries to access the deleted product URL
3. Display a user-friendly message indicating the product is no longer available
4. Provide navigation back to the shop

This is better for SEO than a standard 404 page because:

• It tells search engines the product has been intentionally removed (not just missing)
• Search engines will remove the URL from their index faster
• It reduces "crawl budget" waste on pages that no longer exist
• It provides a better user experience for visitors following old links

⚠️ Important Notes

• Works only if WooCommerce is active.
• Only deletes products that are both out of stock AND older than the configured age.
• WooCommerce placeholder images are protected from deletion.
• Images used in multiple products or in post content are preserved.
• Uses memory-efficient batch processing to handle large stores.
• The 410 tracking system automatically cleans up records older than 1 year.
• Deactivation removes the scheduled cron job.
• Uninstallation removes the cron job, all plugin settings, and 410 tracking data.

🗑️ Uninstalling

When the plugin is uninstalled:

• The cron job is unscheduled.
• Plugin settings are deleted.
• 410 tracking data is removed.
• No product data is deleted during uninstallation.

🧑‍💻 Credits

Developed by OctaHexa.

📄 License

• License: GNU General Public License v3.0

📦 GitHub

• Repository: https://github.com/WPSpeedExpert/delete-old-outofstock-products
• Branch: main