[Resolved] Reviews rating is being copied when duplicating a product
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: You are trying to duplicate a WooCommerce product using the native 'Duplicate' function, but the duplicated product inherits customer review data such as star ratings and review counts, even though it has no actual reviews. This issue occurs only when WPML is active, indicating that WPML is copying or syncing review-related meta during the duplication process. Solution: To avoid copying review data when duplicating a product, use the 'Copy from' option instead of the 'Duplicate' function. This method should prevent the unwanted duplication of review and rating meta fields. For detailed guidance on using the 'Copy from' feature, please refer to the WPML documentation on displaying untranslated content: Copying Content.
If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, we recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If further assistance is needed, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
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Background of the issue:
I’m trying to duplicate an existing WooCommerce product to create a similar one, using the native 'Duplicate' function in the WooCommerce product list. I set up a staging environment (kkk.switch-boards.com) for testing. Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link
Symptoms:
The duplicated product inherits customer review data — such as star ratings and review counts — even though it has no actual reviews. This only happens when WPML is active, which suggests that WPML is copying or syncing review-related meta during the duplication process.
Questions:
How can I duplicate a product without copying any reviews or ratings?
Why does disabling WPML resolve the issue of review data being copied?
To rule out conflicts, I tried disabling all non-essential plugins — keeping only the core ones like WooCommerce and Contact Form 7 active. This included disabling plugins that might interact with product meta or custom fields, such as review systems, SEO plugins, and any custom field tools.
Despite that, the issue persisted — the duplicated product still inherited review data.
The breakthrough came when I disabled WPML. As soon as WPML was turned off, the product duplication worked as expected: the new product had no reviews, no ratings, and no review count.
This clearly indicates that WPML is involved in copying or syncing review-related meta fields, even when these fields are not meant to be duplicated.
I found a workaround that allows me to manually delete review and rating values in the default language by directly clearing the following meta fields:
- Standard WooCommerce review meta keys: _wc_average_rating, _wc_rating_count
- (WCML) meta keys: wcml_average_rating, _wcml_rating_count
Previously, I tried deleting only the default WooCommerce custom fields (_wc_average_rating, _wc_rating_count), but that did not remove the review info because the WCML meta fields remained.
This workaround helps clean up duplicated products after duplication, but I still need assistance with preventing these meta values from being copied during the product duplication process itself.
Ideally, duplicated products should start with no ratings or reviews, and these meta fields should not be inherited or synced automatically.
Looking forward to your guidance on how to stop WPML (or WooCommerce Multilingual) from copying these review meta fields when duplicating products.
While you wait for my colleague to take over the ticket, let me try to help you with the issue quickly.
This is expected since duplicate option duplicate all the data including the custom fields data. What you can do, instead using duplicate option use copy from and it should work fine.
Hi there,
My name is Carlos, and I will continue working on this ticket.
I have created a fresh new WordPress installation with WPML and Woocommerce that you can access using this link: hidden link
I kindly ask you to create a video reproducing the problem in this sandbox site so I can reproduce the same steps and escalate this ticket if necessary.
