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Known Issues with Media Translation for WPML 4 and Upcoming Solutions

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Update – There’s a Fix Available

We’ve released betas for WPML, WPML Media Translation and WooCommerce Multilingual, which fix the issues of images not showing in translations. If your site doesn’t display featured images and other media in translated posts, please try these betas.

To download, log into your WPML account, click on Downloads and switch to Betas. Install the betas of all WPML components that you’re using. If there are still problems, please tell us which WPML components you are using, their versions and what the problem is.

Because it’s so close to the weekend, we’re waiting with the production release for Monday. The betas are tested and you can use them on production sites which have problems. On Monday, we’ll be pushing this update for everyone automatically.

See how to use WPML Media for instructions.

The new Media Translation plugin, which comes with WPML 4.0, has a number of design mistakes, which are causing problems. We’re fixing them right now and we’ll have an update this week.

Basically, our left hand was out of sync with the right hand. So, we removed functionality from one plugin and forgot to include it in another.

Before WPML 3.9, the main purpose of WPML Media Translation was to allow images to appear in all languages. If you created a post in one language and uploaded attachments to it, you’d want these attachments to appear in all languages. This is useful for {{gallery}} shortcodes and the featured image.

As of WPML 3.9, this duplication isn’t necessary anymore, with the new Display as Translated. So, we removed that functionality from Media Translation. The problem is, we didn’t notice that the config file in WPML forces images to be “not translated”. So, our grand design produces something that doesn’t work at all.

Of course, we should have noticed this a lot earlier.

Anyway, we’re right now working on an update for both WPML core and Media Translation. This update will allow to show images on translations without needing the Media Translation plugin.

You will be able to upload images to the page that you create in the site’s default language. All its translations will show these images. This includes featured images and galleries.

We thought that if you’re not using Translation Management, you have no use for Media Translation, so we blocked it. We temporarily re-enabled Media Translation for clients with “Multilingual Blog” accounts, so you can continue downloading Media Translation. Once we release WPML 4.0.3, the Media Translation plugin will really be completely unneeded for you.

We want to make sure that we’re covering all issues related to media translation. If you’re seeing anything else, please add a comment. It’s best to report first in our support forum and then add a comment here with the link to that ticket.

137 Responses to “Known Issues with Media Translation for WPML 4 and Upcoming Solutions”

  1. I’ve updated to the last version, wmpl media translation have a issue with aam plugin, isn’t managed and it’s not possible to hide in the bo main menu

      • hi,yes.
        i’ve a website with aam plugin installed because i’ve a couple of additional role created. this role haven’t the privilege to see wpml and manage it.
        This featured is managed by aam that shadow the menu links in the backoffice.
        When i’ve updated the plugin isn’t possible to do it, and i wasn’t able to shadow again.

        • Hi Fabio,

          I think that we will need to run some further tests with WPML and the AAM plugin. Can you please submit a ticket on our support forum? This way a supporter can troubleshoot these two plugins specifically and escalate to our compatibility team if needed. Thanks!

          Lauren

  2. Can this issue cause a conflict with WooCommerce as both plugins work closely together? Just had a major issue with Woocommerce and wondering if this could be related.

    • Hi Guy,

      Ca you send me some details on what is happening with WooCommerce? There have been some issues related to WooCommerce with the latest release. We also have a beta version of WooCommerce Multilingual available at http://www.wpml.org/account/downloads. If you have a staging site or can make a full backup of your site, you may want to test the beta version to see if it resolves the issue.

      Thanks,
      Lauren

  3. Well, sure, I experienced the following:

    – all WC functions were OK except the product menu;
    – I could open products, duplicate them, and modify the main text description but that’s about it
    – I could no longer change images and any WC-related functions such as variations, attributes, bulk pricing and so forth… they were simply unresponsive, unclickable and also, saving took a long time
    – so I spent an entire day yesterday playing at shutting down all plugins and activating them back one by one until I find the right path
    – now it’s all back on but I have yet to activate one last plugin, WPML Media Translation, since I suspect that the design flaw you mentioned may be related to my recent issues and I prefer awaiting the latest version.

    Am I justified to be that concerned?

    I must mention that, in addition to your recent release issue, WC now requires PHP 7.2 which comes with a lot of adjustments within the server (adding extensions and so on) so that comes into the equation too.

    • Hi Guy,

      I suggest you wait for the next release. We are hoping to have a beta released very soon, and we will let you know as soon as it is available. I also suggest you make a backup of your site before updating, just to be sure you don’t lose the work you have already done. Thanks for your continued patience.

      Lauren

  4. Is there any link where I can download the old wpml media or the old version of the wpml itself before this update? because its a waste of time going through all the six languages and uploading the featured image or doing the duplication of images manually. and since jetpack automatically shares new posts to facebook and twitter, the featured image on translations are not included in the shared posts because it has to be done manually on the site unlike before.

  5. Hi,

    Since a few days, WP API REST fails and “_embedded” key with featured media information is not returned in JSON response for ?lang=en
    ¿Is there any solution for this case?
    We have App (Android and iOS) integrated by WP API REST and our customers can´t see the post´s images.

    Thanks in advance
    Best regards

    • We just released beta versions of WPML and WPML Media Translation which resolve the problem of media files not appearing in translations. Can you try these betas? You can find them in your WPML account, under Downloads. In the Downloads page, switch the Betas.

      If this doesn’t help, please:

      1. Tell us which WPML plugins you’re using and their version.
      2. Describe what you’re doing (in details that we can reproduce) and what’s happening. Tell us what you got before and what’s different now.

      Thanks

  7. I don’t really see what the improvement is with the new version, nor how it works?
    The old way of uploading media worked perfect for me. Upload in the default language, translate the post and then I could just change the meta info on the image for the translated post and add them in there.

    I don’t want the images to automatically appear in the translated posts because I want to be able to adapt the meta info. Or is that not what will happen? Because honestly, the information around this is super unclear.

  8. Also: “We thought that if you’re not using Translation Management, you have no use for Media Translation, so we blocked it.”
    >>>
    Maybe you could have asked first, before making it impossible for us to properly create content?

    I have a post that I need to publish for a client and now I cannot translate the images anymore or even put them in the post.
    I’ve created my post in English. Uploaded the images for the English post. Then translated the post to Dutch and usually what I do then is media > images uploaded to this post and now I cannot see the images that I uploaded to the English version of the post.

    This sucks. The way it used to work was great and now I am late in delivering client work because this isn’t possible anymore.

    • We released betas for WPML, WPML Media Translation and WooCommerce Multilingual. These betas fix the problem of missing images in translated content. Instead of duplicating the attachment posts, this update allows the translated posts to use the media directly from the original. This way, there’s no need to duplicate content. If your site now has a problem of missing images, can you please download and try these betas? If you’ve used Media Translation you need to use the betas of both WPML and Media Translation.

      This restores the full functionality that the image duplication provided before, just without actually duplicating the images.

  9. Hi,

    I downloaded and installed the Beta version. I now have the options [Use featured image from original post] and [Show the same featured image in translations]. The images are displayed in the different languages on the Front-End part of the site. But the images are not displayed in the second language on the back-end of the site (details of the post and list of posts).

    Best regards

    • Hi Michele,

      Are you using the Translation Editor to edit your posts? If you are using the images from the original post, this would be expected behavior. You can edit the image details from the media section of your site. However, if you send the image to translation, you will then see the image details available for translation in the Translation Editor. I hope this helps – let me know if you have any other questions.

      Thanks,
      Lauren

  10. Hi Amir,

    “Instead of duplicating the attachment posts, this update allows the translated posts to use the media directly from the original.”

    >>> Is it then still possible to translate the title, alt text and description? It seems to me that this won’t be good for SEO as one file will basically have the same content twice?

    It would be handy if you could tell me where to find these betas, although I don’t know if I want to install these on a fully operational site. I can’t risk it.

    • Hi Daniela, we are able to follow up better with your issue in the support forum.
      Please continue over there, thanks for understanding.

      • Will do David, no worries, but the WPML support email clearly asked to report all issues persisting after installing the beta version. That’s why I added it here!

        • Yes, thanks for the report.
          But now we have new release candidates which you should try, your issue might be fixed already.
          If the issue persists, please report it to our support forum.

        • Hi Daniela,

          Yes, thanks for reporting here. We will continue troubleshooting on the support thread, but do appreciate you updating us here as well. Thanks!

          Lauren

    • I’ve asked Lauren from WPML support to contact you and get a Duplicator package of your site. Can you please prepare it and send to us?

      Duplicator plugin is here:
      https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/

      I see that the English shop page shows two images. Do you remember what might be different between these products and the products that don’t show images?

  14. I got after update a fatal error: class WPML translation element facrory not found in plugins>woocommerce-multilingual/classes/media/class-wcml-product-image-filter.php line 8

    How can i contribute to tge solution?
    What program languages are needed?
    Java and javascript?

    Thanks

    • Hi Mike,

      We are testing this to see what is the cause if you can please open a support ticket, add a link to a duplicator package (you can do that at the first voice on the ticket, and you can use the Duplicator Plugin for that) so we can grab your site, install and debug. When you have the link to the support ticket please paste it here so I can help rapidly

      Thanks!

  16. Hi After the update if I try to access to the wpml menu like the ” languages” I get an error page like this:
    Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Could not add String with arguments: value: Search allow_empty_value:1 language: en in /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/classes/filters/class-wpml-register-string-filter.php:181 Stack trace: #0 /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/classes/filters/class-wpml-register-string-filter.php(142): WPML_Register_String_Filter->save_string(‘Search’, true, ‘en’, ‘admin_texts_the…’, ”, ‘theme_home_adva…’) #1 /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/inc/functions.php(210): WPML_Register_String_Filter->register_string(”, ‘theme_home_adva…’, ‘Search’, true, ‘en’) #2 /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/inc/admin-texts/wpml-admin-text-import.class.php(86): icl_register_string(‘admin_texts_the…’, ‘theme_home_adva…’, ‘Search’, true) #3 /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/inc/admin-texts/wpml-admin-text-import.class.php(69): WPML_Adm in /home/realest1/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wpml-string-translation/classes/filters/class-wpml-register-string-filter.php on line 181

    Even if I try to click on the plugin page I get’s the same error page.

    Please let me know how to fix it

    Francesco

    • Hi Francesco,

      It looks like this error is coming from one of the registered admin texts. Please go to WPML -> String Translation and look for a text domain that starts with “admin_texts_the” and “theme_home_adva” (that’s not the whole domain, just the part that I see in the error). Once you find those strings, please delete them and then let me know if you are able to access the WPML menu after that.

      Thanks,
      Lauren

      • Hi Lauren, Unfortunatelly I cannot access to the string translation menu, the only solution to make the plugin work is to rename the wpml string folder by ftp. With the string plugin disabled I can access to all the sub menu of the wpml , but it will not let me to translate the strings either to apply the correction that you suggested to me. please find attached the debug and let me know what can I do. thanks

        • Hi Francesco,

          I removed your debug information from your reply because these blog comments are public. For your specific issue, please open a support ticket so that one of our supporters can look further into this for you. Thanks!

          Lauren

  17. Thanks Lauren for your prompt reply, unfortunatelly I cannot go to string translation because I recieve the same error message, the only things that works are:

    Sincronizzazione dei menù
    Traduzione delle tassonomie
    Assistenza

  18. Hi lauren, I tried to reply to your comment but it seems that you did not recieve it. Please can you confirm that?

    many thanks

    Francesco

    • Hi Francesco, I have replied to you previous thread. Please open a support ticket so we can further troubleshoot this issue. Thanks!

  19. The featured image does not display on the translated version of the blog post, how can I fix this?