Frequently Asked Questions

⌘K
  2. Home
  4. Docs
  6. Frequently Asked Question...
  8. Tickets
  10. Tickets are not being generated for large orders

Tickets are not being generated for large orders

This is most likely caused by a data type limitation in your sites database. FooEvents stores ticket data for an order in a single serialized meta_value. On large orders (roughly 30+ tickets in one order, depending on how much data each ticket stores), that serialized value can exceed the maximum size allowed for a TEXT field. When that happens:

  • The order meta is truncated or not fully saved.
  • FooEvents doesn’t have all the data it expects.
  • Tickets for that order may not be generated correctly or at all.

Who is affected? #

This should only affects stores that:

  • Have HPOS (WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage) enabled.
  • Expect to process large ticket orders (around 30 or more tickets in a single order).

If you are not using HPOS, you should not be affected by this issue.

Why doesn’t this affect non-HPOS sites? #

On non-HPOS sites, WooCommerce uses the standard WordPress postmeta table (for example wp_postmeta) for order meta.

In postmeta, the meta_value column is already defined as LONGTEXT, which can store much larger values than TEXT.

Because of that, non-HPOS sites can safely store large FooEvents ticket meta values without any changes.

If you do experiance this issue on a non-HPOS site,  you or your developer may gave changed the data type of the meta_value field in the WordPress postmeta table.

Technical details #

  • TEXT max length: 65,535 bytes.
  • LONGTEXT max length: 4GB.

FooEvents stores per-ticket data such as:

  • Ticket IDs
  • Attendee details
  • Event information
  • Additional ticket meta

All of that is serialized into a single meta_value. On large orders, that string can exceed what TEXT can store, causing truncation and broken ticket generation.

If you’re using HPOS and expect large ticket orders, change the meta_value column in the wc_orders_meta table from TEXT to LONGTEXT.

Important: This involves modifying a WooCommerce core table. Always back up your database first. If you’re not comfortable doing this, ask your host or a developer to assist.

  1. Confirm the table name
    Most installs will use: wp_wc_orders_meta
    If you’re using a custom prefix, adjust accordingly (for example myshop_wc_orders_meta).
  2. Example run the SQL command(adjust table name accordingly) 
    ALTER TABLE `wp_wc_orders_meta`
MODIFY `meta_value` LONGTEXT NULL;
  3. Verify
    • Make sure the query completes without errors.
    • Place a test order with a large number of tickets and confirm tickets are generated as expected.

Will this break WooCommerce or HPOS? #

No. This change is safe and aligns with how WordPress already stores meta:

  • WordPress core and WooCommerce already use LONGTEXT for meta_value in the postmeta table.
  • Changing meta_value in wc_orders_meta from TEXT to LONGTEXT simply increases how much data can be stored; it does not change how WooCommerce or FooEvents read or write the data.

That said:

  • Always take a full database backup first.
  • Ideally, test this change on a staging site before applying it to production.