How to Bulk Edit the Published Date for WooCommerce Products

The published date on a WooCommerce product affects more than just when it appeared in your store. Search engines use it as a freshness signal, and customers use it to judge whether a product is current or outdated. If your catalog includes products that have been sitting with old publication dates for months or years, updating those dates can help improve search visibility and give your store a more active appearance.

The problem is that WooCommerce does not offer a native way to bulk edit published dates. Updating them one by one through the product editor is slow and impractical for large catalogs.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to search for products by published date and bulk edit those dates using WP Sheet Editor, including how to set specific dates, add or deduct time from existing dates, copy the modified date to the publish date, and update old products in bulk.

Install the WP Sheet Editor Plugin

You can skip this step if you already have the plugin installed and activated.

To open the WooCommerce products spreadsheet, go to WP Sheet Editor > Edit Products. You’ll see the spreadsheet containing all your WooCommerce products and their complete data.

1. Search for Products by Published Date

Before making any changes, you may need to filter your products by published date to target a specific group. WP Sheet Editor lets you use any product field as a search filter, including the publication date.

a) Filter Products by a Specific Date

Open the Search tool from the plugin’s top toolbar.

Configure the following values in the Search tool:

• Tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox.
• Note: The Date field may require a specific format including the exact time. To search for products published on a specific date without entering the exact time, use the date range fields and enter the same date in both the start and end fields.
• Date range from: Enter the date.
• To: Enter the same date.
• Click Run search.

After running the search, the spreadsheet will display only the products published on that date.

b) Filter Products by Date Range

If you want to find all products published within a date range, use different values in the start and end date fields.

For example, to find all products published between January 1, 2023 and January 21, 2023, configure the following:

• Tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox.
• Date range from: Enter the start date.
• To: Enter the end date.
• Click Run search.

Once the search runs, the spreadsheet will display all products published within the selected date range.

2. Bulk Edit Product Published Dates in the Spreadsheet

If you need to assign a different published date to each product individually, you can edit the Date column directly in the spreadsheet. This is useful when the dates need to vary from product to product rather than following a uniform update.

• Go to the Date column in the spreadsheet.
• Click the date cell for each product you want to update and enter the new date.
• Click the Save button to apply the changes.

This approach works well when you have a manageable number of products to update and each one requires a unique date.

3. Bulk Change Time from Existing Product Dates

In cases where you want to shift all product dates forward or backward by a set amount of time, the Bulk Edit tool provides two dedicated options: adding time to existing dates and deducting time from existing dates. Both operate dynamically based on each product’s current publication date.

a) Deduct Time from Existing Dates

This option shifts all selected product dates backward by a specified number of hours, days, weeks, months, or years. It is useful when you want products to appear as if they were published earlier.

Open the Bulk Edit tool.

In the Bulk Edit tool, configure the following values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Date
• Select type of edit: Deduct time from existing dates
• Number: Enter the number of hours, days, weeks, months, or years to deduct.
• Time unit: Select the time unit. If the existing date is empty, the current date will be used as the base.
• Click Execute now.

Once the bulk edit completes, the updated dates will be visible in the spreadsheet.

b) Add Time to Existing Dates

This option shifts all selected product dates forward by a specified amount. It is useful for scheduling product visibility, planning promotional campaigns, or making older products appear more recently updated.

Open the Bulk Edit tool.

In the Bulk Edit tool, configure the following values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Date
• Select type of edit: Add time to existing dates
• Number: Enter the number of hours, days, weeks, months, or years to add.
• Time unit: Select the time unit. If the existing date is empty, the current date will be used as the base.
• Click Execute now.

Once the bulk edit completes, the updated dates will be visible in the spreadsheet.

4. Copy the Modified Date to the Publish Date

When you make significant updates to a product, such as adding new features, correcting errors, or refreshing the description, copying the modified date to the publish date signals to search engines that the content has been recently updated. This can improve how the product appears in search results and draw returning visitors back to listings they may have seen before.

Open the Bulk Edit tool.

In the Bulk Edit tool, configure the following values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (Even non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Date
• Select type of edit: Copy from other columns
• Copy from this column: Modified Date
• Select Edit only parent products.
• Click Execute now.

Note: The time value may not match exactly, since the last modification time will be affected by the bulk edit operation itself.

Once the bulk edit completes, you will see the updated publish dates in the spreadsheet.

5. Bulk Edit Published Dates for Old Products

Products that have been sitting in your store for a long time with old publication dates can give customers the impression that the item is no longer in demand or that there is no urgency to purchase. Refreshing the published date on older products makes them appear more current and can positively affect their visibility in search results.

The first step is to filter your oldest products using the Search tool. For example, to find all products published two or more years ago, configure the following:

• Tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox.
• Date range from: Enter the start date using the MM-DD-YYYY format.
• To: Enter the end date.
• Click Run search.

Once the products are filtered, open the Bulk Edit tool.

In the Bulk Edit tool, configure the following values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (including non-visible rows).
• What field do you want to update: Date
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Enter the new published date.
• Select Edit only parent products.
• Click Execute now.

Once the changes have been applied, the updated dates will be displayed in the spreadsheet.

6. Bulk Randomize Dates for All Products

If you want to distribute your product publication dates across a range of time periods rather than setting them all to the same date, randomizing dates is a useful option. This prevents your catalog from looking like it was imported all at once and can make individual products appear more organically spread over time.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of this approach, see the dedicated tutorial: How to Set Random Dates for WooCommerce Products.

This is how you can use WP Sheet Editor to bulk edit the published date for WooCommerce products, keep your catalog looking fresh, and maintain consistent search visibility over time.