WooCommerce refunds not processing: what is the difference between manual and automatic refunds?
Refund issues in WooCommerce usually come from misunderstanding whether the payment gateway supports automatic refunds or only manual refunds. Merchants should confirm the gateway capability before assuming WooCommerce itself failed.
A refund can appear stuck because the gateway only supports a manual workflow, the order state is wrong, or the payment integration did not post the event back correctly. The visible refund symptom often overlaps with order and webhook behavior.
Check the official refunds guidance first, then compare the refund attempt against the order record and gateway behavior. If the workflow should be automatic but nothing updates correctly, capture order notes and logs before escalating.
Official URLs to review: