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10. Troubleshooting

If something isn't working as expected, these steps resolve the large majority of issues — and when they don't, they give us exactly what we need to help you quickly.

1. Quick checks​

Most issues come down to one of these, so check them first:

  • All required plugins are active and up to date — LearnDash, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Memberships, and MemberDash. For team/group features, also Teams for WooCommerce Memberships.
  • Your MemberDash license is active — check Settings > MemberDash > License.
  • The course isn't free or open — free/open courses are accessible to everyone regardless of membership, so a grant has no visible effect. Test with a closed course.
  • Caches are cleared — clear any caching plugin or host-level cache, and your browser cache, after making changes.

2. Common MemberDash issues​

A member isn't getting course access​

Check, in order:

  1. Is the course free/open? Free courses are accessible to everyone regardless of membership — so a grant has no visible effect. Use a closed course to see membership-driven access.
  2. Is the membership active? Access is granted for active (and pending) memberships. Delayed, cancelled, expired, or paused memberships don't grant access.
  3. Does the plan have a matching rule? Confirm the plan's Course Enrolment tab has a rule covering the course (or a category it's in, or a blank "all" rule).
  4. Is it a delayed rule? See below.
  5. Is the membership out of step? If all of the above check out, re-save the membership. See A member's course access is out of step.

Access should have been removed but wasn't​

If the member still has access after a membership ended, they likely still hold it another way — a second active membership that grants the same course, a LearnDash group that includes it, or the course being free/open. MemberDash only removes access the member doesn't otherwise have.

If none of those apply, give it a few minutes: removals that are queued run shortly afterwards, and a daily check finishes any removal that didn't complete. If it still hasn't happened, check for the waiting-updates warning below.

Delayed or date-specific access hasn't appeared​

This is expected until the schedule is due. After a delay rules count from the member's purchase date; on a specific date rules unlock at that date/time. The enrolment is then applied automatically — no manual step.

The Settings tab is empty​

The Settings tab requires Teams for WooCommerce Memberships to be active; without it, the tab shows a notice instead of its options.

A member's course access is out of step with their membership​

If a member has an active membership but is missing the plan's courses (for example after a site migration, a restored backup, or an issue on an older version), open the membership under WooCommerce → Memberships → Members and click Save without changing anything. Saving re-runs the sync for that membership: missing courses are granted, and courses the member already holds are kept with their original enrolment dates.

Changes to a plan are slow to apply to all members​

When a plan's courses change, MemberDash re-syncs its members in the background, in batches (default 1000 per batch — see Settings). For plans with many members, give the sync a little time to work through.

Background work, including the tail end of a bulk change on the Members screen, runs through WooCommerce's scheduled actions. If those aren't running on your site, see the next section.

A dashboard warning says course access updates are waiting​

You may see this warning in your WordPress admin:

MemberDash: 3 course access updates have been waiting more than 15 minutes to run, so some members may have the wrong course access until they do. This usually means the site's scheduled actions are not running (WP-Cron disabled or blocked by the host). View the waiting actions.

MemberDash hands some of its work to WooCommerce's scheduled actions, which run on WP-Cron. If WP-Cron is disabled or blocked, that work waits, and members can keep access they should lose (or miss access they should get) until it runs.

To fix it:

  1. Click View the waiting actions to open WooCommerce → Status → Scheduled Actions, filtered to the waiting MemberDash updates. You can run one from there to check that it completes.
  2. Ask your host whether WP-Cron is disabled (DISABLE_WP_CRON in wp-config.php) or blocked. If it is disabled on purpose, make sure a real server cron job calls wp-cron.php regularly instead.

The warning only appears for users who can manage WooCommerce, and it clears itself once the waiting updates have run.

LearnDash WooCommerce is also active​

MemberDash and the official LearnDash WooCommerce plugin (shown as LearnDash LMS - WooCommerce on the Plugins page) both grant and remove LearnDash course access when orders and memberships change. With both active, one can remove access the other granted, or keep access the other removed. Check your Plugins page: some sites have both active from an earlier setup.

You may also see this warning in your WordPress admin:

MemberDash: the official LearnDash WooCommerce plugin is also active. Both plugins manage LearnDash course access and will conflict — please deactivate one of them or contact support before relying on membership course sync.

Don't rely on the warning alone: it doesn't appear with every version of LearnDash WooCommerce, so check the Plugins page either way. If you sell memberships through MemberDash, deactivate LearnDash WooCommerce. If you also sell courses directly as WooCommerce products and need both plugins, contact support before relying on membership course sync.

3. Test for a plugin or theme conflict​

Do this on a staging site where possible, not a live production site.

Plugin conflict test — Deactivate every plugin except LearnDash, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Memberships, and MemberDash (plus Teams for WooCommerce Memberships if you use team features), then recheck. If the issue is gone, reactivate the others one at a time, rechecking after each, until the conflicting plugin reveals itself.

Theme conflict test — Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (for example, Twenty Twenty-Five) and recheck. If that resolves it, the conflict is with your theme.

4. Update everything​

Make sure LearnDash, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Memberships, and MemberDash are all on their latest versions — along with WordPress and PHP. Many issues are bugs that have already been fixed in a newer release.

5. Still stuck? Open a support ticket​

If the steps above don't resolve it, contact support and include:

  • WordPress and PHP versions
  • Versions of LearnDash, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Memberships, and MemberDash (and Teams for WooCommerce Memberships if used)
  • The exact steps to reproduce the issue, and what you expected versus what happened
  • A screenshot or short screen recording
  • The result of the plugin and theme conflict tests above
  • Any errors from your browser console or PHP error log

The more of this you include, the faster we can pinpoint and resolve the issue.