WooCommerce: Sort Products By Stock @ Admin Dashboard

We’ve already seen how to sort frontend products by in stock first and out of stock last, but what about doing the exact same for administrators and shop managers in the backend?

Sometimes shops have to deal with a lot of “sold” products and the products table becomes messy, so this is a way to sort by stock status (In stock -> Out of stock) on load. You can then use the column headers to sort by other data as usual, so this will only work once you access /wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=product page.

So, here’s a very simple snippet for you. Enjoy!

PHP Snippet: Sort Products by Stock Status @ WooCommerce Admin

/**
 * @snippet       Product Sorted By Stock @ WordPress Dashboard
 * @how-to        Get CustomizeWoo.com FREE
 * @author        Rodolfo Melogli
 * @compatible    WooCommerce 5
 * @community     https://businessbloomer.com/club/
 */

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'bbloomer_sort_products_by_stock_status_admin' );

function bbloomer_sort_products_by_stock_status_admin( $query ){
	global $typenow;
	if ( is_admin() && $query->is_main_query() && $typenow == 'product' ) {
		if ( ! isset( $_GET['orderby'] ) ) {
			$query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );
			$query->set( 'meta_key', '_stock_status' );
			$query->set( 'order', 'ASC' );
		}
	}
}

Where to add custom code?

You should place custom PHP in functions.php and custom CSS in style.css of your child theme: where to place WooCommerce customization?

This code still works, unless you report otherwise. To exclude conflicts, temporarily switch to the Storefront theme, disable all plugins except WooCommerce, and test the snippet again: WooCommerce troubleshooting 101

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Rodolfo Melogli

Business Bloomer Founder

Author, WooCommerce expert and WordCamp speaker, Rodolfo has worked as an independent WooCommerce freelancer since 2011. His goal is to help entrepreneurs and developers overcome their WooCommerce nightmares. Rodolfo loves travelling, chasing tennis & soccer balls and, of course, wood fired oven pizza. Follow @rmelogli