General
Is the plugin free?
Yes — the free plugin on WordPress.org runs standard ascending auctions end to end: bidding, reserve prices, Buy It Now, countdowns, winner selection, payment, emails, shortcodes, and admin screens. Bidra Auctions Pro adds proxy bidding, sealed-bid auctions, anti-sniping, automatic relisting, payment deadlines, reports, and a REST API.
Does it work with my theme?
Yes. Auctions are ordinary WooCommerce products, so they use your theme’s product templates. Every piece of auction markup is an overridable template.
Does it work with the block-based Cart & Checkout and HPOS?
Yes — both WooCommerce Cart & Checkout Blocks and High-Performance Order Storage are supported.
Does the plugin send data anywhere?
No. It makes no external requests, loads no remote assets, and includes no tracking. Bids, watchlists, and outcomes are stored only in your own database.
Do bidders need an account?
Yes. Bidding requires a logged-in customer so bids can be tied to a real buyer and winners can pay. Make sure customer registration is enabled under WooCommerce → Settings → Accounts & Privacy.
Running auctions
What happens when an auction ends?
A background task runs every minute and closes auctions whose end time has passed. The highest bidder wins and gets an email with a payment link. If nobody bid, or the reserve wasn’t met, the auction is marked unsold and you’re notified instead.
My auction didn’t close on time.
WP-Cron only runs when your site gets traffic, so on quiet sites it can be late. The auction always shows the correct state to visitors — it’s checked whenever its page is viewed — but to send emails punctually, hook WP-Cron to a real system cron.
My auction opens or closes at the wrong time.
Auction dates use your site timezone. Check Settings → General → Timezone — prefer a city (e.g. "London") over a raw UTC offset so daylight saving is handled.
Can bidders see the reserve price?
No. They only see whether the reserve has been met.
Can someone else buy an auction I won?
No. Once an auction closes, only the winner can add it to the cart and check out.
The winner hasn’t paid. What can I do?
See who owes what under WooCommerce → Auctions → Winners. Winners can pay any time from their email or My Account → Auctions → Won. To enforce a deadline, send reminders, or offer the item to the next highest bidder automatically, use Pro’s payment deadlines.
How do I remove a fake or mistaken bid?
Delete it from WooCommerce → Auctions → Bids. The auction is recalculated from the remaining bids automatically. With Pro, bidders can also retract their own bid within a grace period.
Can I run an auction again?
Yes — edit it and set a new end date in the future. Pro can relist failed auctions automatically, optionally at a lower price.
Can I bid on my own auction?
No — self-bidding inflates the price and is blocked. Developers can change this with the bafw_can_bid_on_own_auction filter.
Can I hide bidder names?
Yes. Enable Bidder privacy in the settings and names appear as the first and last character only, e.g. B*******e.
Storefront
My Account → Auctions shows a 404.
Go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to flush the rewrite rules.
Auctions don’t appear on my shop page.
Check WooCommerce → Auctions → Settings → Catalog: the Shop page option keeps auctions off the main shop page, and the Finished/Scheduled auctions options hide closed or upcoming ones. Auctions also need to be published and in stock.
The live bid updates are slowing my server.
Raise the Update interval (e.g. 15–30 seconds) or turn Live bid updates off under Settings → Display. Updates already pause in background tabs.
Emails aren’t arriving.
Confirm the email is enabled under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. If no store emails arrive, your host’s mail delivery is the problem — install an SMTP plugin.
Data
Will my data be deleted if I remove the plugin?
Only if you ask for it. Enable Remove data on uninstall in the settings before deleting the plugin, and bids, settings, and auction meta are removed. Otherwise everything is left untouched.
Pro
Does the free plugin support automatic (proxy) bidding?
Proxy bidding, sealed-bid auctions, anti-sniping, and automatic relisting are part of Pro.
Do I need the free plugin for Pro?
Yes — Pro is an add-on. Run free v1.0.1 or later alongside it; with an older free version Pro shows an update notice and keeps its features switched off.
I installed Pro but don’t see any Pro features.
Pro features only switch on with a valid license. Check the license status under Bidra Auctions Pro on the Plugins screen — see License activation.
An auction was extended past its end time.
That’s Pro’s anti-sniping working: a bid inside the closing window adds time. Adjust or cap it under Pro Settings, or disable it per auction.
Why did a relisted auction lose its bid history?
Relisting starts the listing fresh, which clears the previous listing’s bids. Export them from Reports first if you need a record.
Still stuck?
Contact support with your WordPress, WooCommerce, and plugin versions, the auction’s product ID, and what you expected to happen. Free users can also post in the WordPress.org support forum.