This article is a follow-up on a question we recently received here on the Create With Code Dragon blog. The question was based upon one of our previous articles called Configuring WooCommerce Products that are both Physical and Digital.
Essentially the question had to do with digital products and how to limit the number of times a customer can download that product – such as a PDF for example. The reader was asking how to make the quantity fixed in this instance, to limit the number of downloads to one. (We’re specifically talking about the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress in this case.)
Possible Solutions:
One good solution would be to set a limit on the number of times a customer can use the link to download the digital product.
You can also set an expiration date on the digital/downloadable product link, so it won’t be accessible or function after a specific number of days after purchase.
You can do this by following these instructions to access the digital product you’d like to edit:
- Look along the left side menu of your WordPress dashboard, then click on Products:
- There you should see a listing of all your products.
- Click on the specific product you would like to edit, then scroll down inside your editor until you see the Product data section (where all of the various product details and options are displayed).
- Select the General tab along the left side.
Then, when you get to this screen you have some options to consider:
- the “Downloadable files” section appears if you check the little box next to “Downloadable”. Add a Name for your downloadable file(s), then click the Add File button to upload the file or files for your digital download.
- under “Download limit” enter the number “1” in that field. If you leave it blank or leave it saying “Unlimited” then people can download your product as many times as they want to. Entering the number “1” there will be an easy way to make sure your customers only download a digital product one time.
- under “Download expiry” enter the number of days before your download link will expire. If you leave that field blank or leave it saying “Never” then there will be no expiration date at all.
There are a few reasons why it might be necessary to limit the number of times a customer can access a link to download a product.
Among the reasons are:
- Discouraging the urge to share the purchased file with others (who have not purchased it).
- Limiting the number of calls to the server and possibly lightening the server’s load just a tad.
- To more easily track and monitor your digital downloads.
Please let me know if you can think of other scenarios where it might be useful to limit the number of times a customer can download a digital product, and/or if you have any questions.
Thanks for reading!
