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The password isn't working

I'm getting an "Incorrect Password" message

If you're entering the correct password for a protected category but it's not unlocking the category, then there might be a problem with your category structure.

You can't password protect sub-categories AND their parent category with different passwords. If a subcategory is marked as 'Public' then it will automatically inherit the same password as the parent category. If you want to password protect the subcategory and leave the parent category public, then that is fine too. However, you can't password protect both the parent category and sub-category because this will cause a conflict.

You can check this on your categories page in the WordPress admin:

WooCommerce password protected category structure

Example of correct category structure - only the parent category is protected

The page is refreshing after I enter the password

If the page refreshes after you enter the password, then this is probably an issue with your caching plugin (e.g. WP Rocket) or the caching provided by your web host.

Most caching systems automatically exclude the WordPress password protection cookie from the cache. Our plugin uses the same cookie, so your login page and password protected categories should not be cached. However, if your caching provider hasn't excluded the cookie, then you may get this problem.

This error can also happen if you have entered a password expiry date of over 9999 days on the plugin settings page. Please check this and change the number to less than 9999 days if needed.

How to fix the page refresh problem

  1. Ask your caching provider why pages using the WordPress cookie for password protected posts is not being excluded from the cache.
  2. Add a rule to the caching plugin settings to exclude the product category pages from the cache.

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