We discussed this issue with Elementor support in detail and the last conclusion was that this issue is “a global WordPress indexing issue rather than an Elementor-specific bug, as the post is also unretrievable via the default WP-Admin search for Posts and Pages; Elementor is simply reflecting this underlying core search failure.”
Here's the description of the original problem in a google doc. hidden link
Here are two screen recordings showing the exact issue: hidden link hidden link
At this point it seems like there’s a problem somewhere between WP and WPML in terms of returning the correct results in search and the issue seems to be related to translations specifically. And, importantly, the problem is not 100% reliable, as the doc above indicates. Sometimes this problem can be fixed by relentlessly retrying and if you’re lucky, the right translated post will show up. But, this is, as far as I can tell, almost luck, as nothing from our side seems to directly affect the outcome. Not cache clearing, not permalinks resaving, nothing. It seems random (though I know it probably isn’t - just seems like it to us).
Hopefully you can help? In the next message I can provide access info.
Thank you for the detailed report and for sharing the recordings this is very helpful.
I’ve checked this further on my side and I can see that we’ve had similar reports in the past, which should already be fixed in recent WPML versions. I also tested this on a sandbox site, but I was not able to reproduce the issue there.
I noticed that you are currently using an older version of WPML plugins. Could you please update WPML to the latest version 4.9.2? You can do this by going to Plugins → Add New → Commercial → Check for updates. Before proceeding, please make sure to create a full backup of your site. After updating, please check if the issue still occurs.
If the problem persists, it would be very helpful if you could try to reproduce it on a test/sandbox site and share the exact steps. This would allow us to escalate it more efficiently, as it’s possible I may be missing a specific condition required to trigger the issue.
- hidden link
But based on previous reports, I believe this should be resolved after updating.
Thanks for your help. I did as you recommended, updated the plugins. In the default search results ( /?s=[search-term] ) it seems like it’s working fine. For example searching for these three posts while the site is in German works fine: hidden link hidden link hidden link
However, yeah, the Elementor problem remains. Testing here: hidden link
Same issue as before, the german posts from above are not being found.
So I used your sandbox to check.
In the sandbox, the loops (manual selection) works fine. hidden link hidden link
And the search works fine as well: hidden link
Any ideas on how to proceed? Back to Elementor support now that the WPML side seems to be resolved and the sandbox failed to replicate the issue after changes?
Thanks for the detailed testing, that helps a lot.
From what you shared, everything works correctly on the sandbox, and the issue only happens on your site and only in the secondary language. Because of that, it could still be related to WPML, but also possibly something specific to your setup.
I would suggest the next step is to isolate it further:
- Create a staging site if possible
- Test with only WPML plugins and Elementor active
- Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme
This will help determine if the issue is caused by a third-party plugin, custom theme, or custom code.
If the issue still happens in that minimal setup, let me know and I’ll enable private reply for you to share the admin access so we can investigate further.
Thank you! 🙂
Yep, testing in staging with troubleshooting mode, only WPML plugins and Elementor plugins enabled, with default WP theme, it does seem to work just fine. So the issue is likely somewhere in our theme or some other plugin. It’s not going to be easy to determine, as the project is quite large and remaining on the custom theme and using troubleshooting mode is a huge pain, because there are critical errors without some of the plugins. A bunch of code without fallbacks, it seems. So this is then likely neither an Elementor, nor a WPML issue, right?
Yes, based on your testing, it does seem that the issue is not coming from WPML or Elementor.
Since everything works correctly in troubleshooting mode with only WPML and Elementor enabled and a default theme, the problem is most likely related to your custom theme or another plugin.
The best approach would be to gradually enable plugins to see if the issue reappears. If it doesn’t, then the custom theme is the most likely cause. In that case, you’d need to trace what code is being executed on that specific page/action to identify what might be interfering.
I understand this can be tricky in a larger project, especially with dependencies and missing fallbacks, but that would be the most reliable way to isolate the cause.
Feel free to reach out again if you need any help along the way.
