WooCommerce 9.9.4: Fixes and an updated email rollout

What’s in this release

🔄 Update – Pause rollout of email improvements to existing stores. #58828
Based on feedback from a small number of merchants and developers, and out of an abundance of caution, we have paused the automatic opt-in for new email designs. Stores that have already opted in will keep the feature, while the remaining stores will now receive a manual opt-in prompt.

🛡️ Security enhancement – Sanitize input in admin report queries to prevent potential SQL injection. #58857
Improved the use of filters in get_order_report_data() by applying $wpdb->prepare() for safer handling of parameters like coupon_codes.

🐛 Fix – Add proper error handling when WCCOM API is unavailable. #58750
This prevents a blank screen in cases where the WCCOM API can’t be reached, ensuring more resilient behavior during API outages.

🐛 Fix – Fix bug in wc_change_term_counts() that hid empty top-level product categories. #58821
The issue was causing some empty product categories to disappear from navigation menus; this restores their visibility.

🐛 Fix – Hide General tab when COGS is disabled for variable products. #58701
This prevents the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) “General” tab from appearing on variable products when the feature is turned off, aligning the UI with the user’s settings.

🐛 Fix – Prevent All Products block from breaking when the mini cart is not in the site header. #58741
Fixes an edge-case layout issue where the All Products block would break if the site’s mini cart wasn’t loaded in the header.

🐛 Fix – Default shipping rate cost to ‘0’ instead of an empty string. #58804
This ensures that shipping rates without a defined cost show as 0, preventing calculation issues and confusion.

🐛 Fix – Provide fallback message when php_uname() is disabled. #58734
Adds a fallback method to avoid errors in environments where this PHP function is blocked, such as in hardened server setups.