This is a cool customization that can come useful for WooCommerce store admins, especially when they do manual order status changes via the Orders admin page.
As you know, each order status change triggers an order email (“processing”, “completed”, “on-hold”, etc.), and sometimes the store manager doesn’t want to resend them after each edit.
In this quick tutorial, we will see how to add a checkbox to the single order edit page, so that emails are disabled as long as the checkbox is kept checked. Enjoy!
PHP Snippet: Checkbox to Disable Order Emails @ WooCommerce Single Order Edit Page
This WooCommerce snippet adds a custom checkbox to the single order edit screen in the admin area, allowing store managers to disable transactional emails for that specific order.
The checkbox, labeled “Disable Order Emails,” is displayed under the order details. When the order is saved, the setting is stored using WooCommerce’s CRUD methods (update_meta_data and save) to ensure compatibility with both the default order tables and High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS).
If the box is checked, the snippet hooks into the email recipient filters for common customer notifications (on-hold, processing, completed) and prevents them from being sent by emptying the recipient field. This ensures customers won’t receive emails for status changes on that order.
The snippet is lightweight, easy to extend for additional emails, and fully updated to work with WooCommerce 10+ and HPOS environments.
/**
* @snippet Disable Emails for Single Order @ WooCommerce Admin
* @how-to businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-customization
* @author Rodolfo Melogli, Business Bloomer
* @compatible WooCommerce 10
* @community https://businessbloomer.com/club/
*/
add_action( 'woocommerce_admin_order_data_after_order_details', 'bbloomer_disable_order_emails', 9999 );
function bbloomer_disable_order_emails( $order ) {
woocommerce_wp_checkbox( array(
'id' => '_disable_order_emails',
'label' => '<b>Disable Order Emails</b>',
'description' => 'Check this if you wish to disable emails when order status changes',
'wrapper_class' => 'form-field-wide',
'style' => 'width:auto',
'value' => $order->get_meta( '_disable_order_emails' ),
));
}
add_action( 'woocommerce_process_shop_order_meta', 'bbloomer_save_disable_order_emails', 9999, 2 );
function bbloomer_save_disable_order_emails( $order_id, $post ) {
$order = wc_get_order( $order_id );
if ( isset( $_POST['_disable_order_emails'] ) ) {
$order->update_meta_data( '_disable_order_emails', wc_clean( wp_unslash( $_POST['_disable_order_emails'] ) ) );
} else {
$order->delete_meta_data( '_disable_order_emails' );
}
$order->save();
}
add_filter( 'woocommerce_email_recipient_customer_on_hold_order', 'bbloomer_disable_customer_emails_if_disabled', 9999, 2 );
add_filter( 'woocommerce_email_recipient_customer_processing_order', 'bbloomer_disable_customer_emails_if_disabled', 9999, 2 );
add_filter( 'woocommerce_email_recipient_customer_completed_order', 'bbloomer_disable_customer_emails_if_disabled', 9999, 2 );
// Target other emails with https://www.businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-add-extra-content-order-email/
function bbloomer_disable_customer_emails_if_disabled( $recipient, $order ) {
$page = isset( $_GET['page'] ) ? wc_clean( wp_unslash( $_GET['page'] ) ) : '';
if ( 'wc-settings' === $page ) {
return $recipient;
}
if ( $order && $order->get_meta( '_disable_order_emails' ) ) {
$recipient = '';
}
return $recipient;
}
As of 2025 (using latest WC version) this no longer works. and email are still sending. Not sure what has changed on the woocommerce side.
I use it on Business Bloomer, definitely works!
When HPOS is turned on, it does not work.
You’re right! Can you test the new version please?
It really doesn’t work. You probably don’t have WP updated. Try enabling HPOS.
Sorry Roman, but on my dev website I have HPOS enabled. Works perfectly:
1) open a test order in “processing” status, set to completed, I get the completed email
2) open a different test order in “processing” status, check the checkbox, save, set to completed, I do not get the completed email
This is a great snippet! Would there be a clean way to reset it after every order save? Because if you forget about it and you do a bulk update via the backend order list the email will also be ignored and you would not know about it.
Or you could add a column to the order list to know if it’s enabled / disabled. Similar example: https://www.businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-add-column-to-orders-table-wp-dashboard/