Exporting the PrestaShop catalogue or orders as CSV, Excel or PDF
The Export button at the bottom of the back office’s Orders and Catalogue lists only exports the columns currently visible on screen, and it honours whatever filters are active on the list. An export that looks empty is almost always down to a filter left active, a date range or a status, excluding all the rows you expected.
What the Export button actually does
On back-office lists like Orders or Catalogue > Products, the export button builds a file from whatever is on screen at the moment you click: same columns, same filters, same sort order. If a date or status filter is still active from an earlier search, the export will only contain rows matching it, even if the intention was to export the whole catalogue or every order.
That’s the most common cause of an export that looks empty or incomplete: the list itself is filtered, not the export tool malfunctioning.
The generated file is CSV, to be opened or imported into Excel depending on the machine’s regional settings. Invoices and delivery slips, by contrast, exist as PDF by default: they sit among the documents PrestaShop generates natively as PDF, alongside credit slips (HTMLTemplateOrderSlip) and merchandise return slips (HTMLTemplateOrderReturn), all produced by the classes in classes/pdf/ with content and layout driven by a template specific to each shop.
What the Export button doesn’t do
- Choose exactly which fields to include: only columns already shown in the list end up in the file.
- Schedule a recurring export, to an FTP server or a scheduled task.
- Generate a PDF other than the invoice or delivery slip PrestaShop already produces.
- Combine data from several screens into one file, such as a catalogue enriched with stock or order information.
Related pages
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Bulk-importing products via CSV
The reverse operation, with its own pitfalls around encoding and duplicate references.
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Syncing your catalogue with Amazon, Cdiscount or eBay
When exporting to a marketplace needs more than a one-off file: a connector and a seller account.
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Custom PrestaShop module development
For a custom, automated or scheduled export beyond the native button.
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