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Where are uploaded files stored?

The WooCommerce Product Options plugin has a 'File Upload' add-on type, which allows customers to upload one or more files to the products they purchase.

A link to the uploaded files is contained in the order notification email. Simply click it to access the uploaded file(s).

To avoid cluttering up your site with user-submitted information relating to your orders, the files are not stored in the WordPress Media Library. Instead, uploaded media files are stored in a separate folder in the Uploads directory.

Further reading: How to upload files from WooCommerce product pages

File protection and security

The uploaded files are protected as follows:

  • Anyone with the direct link can access the file.
  • Files are stored in a randomized directory name which is generated from the customer session id.
  • On Apache powered servers (generally used by cheaper hosts), WooCommerce Product Options automatically makes sure the upload directory and all subdirectories are protected. This prevents anyone from getting unauthorized access to the directory listing and finding out the file URLs in order to access them.
  • On NGINX powered servers (generally used by better hosts such as Kinsta and WPEngine), the directory listing is already disabled so WooCommerce Product Options relies on this protection.

Files which are uploaded and not associated to an order are automatically deleted after 7 days. For example, if a customer has abandoned their cart after uploading files then this stops the files from being permanently stored on your server.

Can I change where files are stored?

The plugin includes a developer filter which you can use to store uploaded images in a year/month folder structure if required (i.e. /wp-content/wpo-uploads/2025/02/).

Improving performance of uploaded files

By default, the plugin only stores the full-size version of image files uploaded by the customer. If you wish to improve performance (for example, for sites with particularly high numbers of uploaded images), we have added developer filter callbacks allowing you to generate thumbnail versions of these images and to alter the default size and quality of these thumbnails.

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