WordPress 6.1 was released on November 1st and contains critical, breaking issues with WPML. We recently released WPML 4.5.13 and String Translation 3.2.3 to fix these.
WordPress 6.1 introduces breaking changes
To avoid breaking your site, you must update to WPML 4.5.13 and String Translation 3.2.3 before updating to WordPress 6.1.
How to Update WPML
WPML 4.5.13 and String Translation 3.2.3 are now available to all WPML clients. You can get these updates from your Downloads page, or by visiting the Plugins page.
Updating WPML and String Translation
What to Do If WordPress 6.1 Breaks Your Site
If you update to WordPress 6.1 before updating WPML, you will see a fatal error on your site. If you have already tried to update WPML using the steps above and are unable to, please try the following fix:
Disable String Translation to make your site’s front-end accessible for others.
Update WPML core to 4.5.13 and String Translation to 3.2.3.
Re-enable String Translation.
If you are not able to access your site’s admin or none of the previous steps seem to work, please try any of these options:
Manually update WPML using FTP (if you cannot log in to your site).
Roll back to a previous version of WordPress, then update WPML.
Restore your site from a backup, then update WPML before updating WordPress.
How to Disable Future Automatic WordPress Feature Updates
You can disable future automatic WordPress updates except for maintenance and security updates by going to Dashboard → Updates and clicking the link, Switch to automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only.
Switching to automatic updates for WordPress maintenance and security releases only
It’s important to note that some hosting providers may automatically update WordPress versions. In that case, you will need to contact them to stop automatic updates.
Why This Happened
This WordPress release has been a moving target with changes introduced between each release candidate, and bugs that weren’t fixed. What’s more, the release date was a holiday for many of our European clients and coworkers.
Normally, we do not release an update until it has been tested thoroughly with the latest WordPress release. However, due to the fact that there was no final version of WordPress 6.1 available until the last minute, we wanted to provide you with an update for the critical issues we were aware of as soon as possible.
Known Issues in WordPress 6.1
These WPML releases address several known issues from WordPress 6.1, including:
WPML Core 4.5.12 & 4.5.13:
Fixed a notice related to WP_object_cache
Added support for translating the new List-item Gutenberg block
Fixed an issue with registering strings coming from the Elementor Flexbox container
Fixed an issue with the Block widget text being unexpectedly wrapped with a paragraph tag
Fixed the issue where Block widgets translations were not applied any more
Fixed an issue with the menu language switcher where the wpml-ls-first-item class was applied to the current language instead of the first listed language. This issue was introduced in WordPress 6.1 and WPML 4.5.12.
Fixed an issue with the hierarchical language menus to make sure it is not possible to not display the current language in such menus.
String Translation 3.2.3:
Fixed a fatal error that occurs when running WPML with WordPress version 6.1.
Please note: WordPress 6.1 may introduce issues with other plugins and themes as well. Be sure to keep all your themes and plugins up to date to prevent issues.
Questions or Comments?
Let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll reply.
How can we make WPML better for you?
Share your thoughts and comments about our plugin, documentation, or videos by booking a Zoom call with Agnes, our Client Advocate. Your feedback matters and helps us improve.
218 Responses to “WPML 4.5.13 – Updates for WordPress 6.1”
Hi,
I followed your instruction to update two WPML plugins, then it got “There has been a critical error on this website.” What is the best way to get out of this situation?
I’d like to add one thing. I realized my hosting update my WordPress automatically, so it was already 6.1 was installed when I tried to update WPML.
Hi Allison,
Thank you for the link.
I was able to remove the error by removing WPML string translation(change the plugin folder name), and then logged back in to update WPML to 4.5.12, then rename the plugin fonder to original and update WPML string translation. Then finally activate it again. So far, it looks like working fine with WP6.1. – maybe because I’m not using the string translation anywhere-
Thank you,
Eri
Thanks for the update, Eri! Glad to hear you got it working again.
How can i download WPML 4.9.12 and string translation 3.2.3
Hi Hoang – Please see the last section of the announcement above for instructions on how to get the updates.
Okay … and why haven’t you scheduled the update before for all users ????
Not everyone is monitoring this blog and getting the information. There are also sites updating WP automatically…
Hi Adrian – We released a beta on Friday for anyone who wanted it and sent out a newsletter. On Monday, we released the production version before the WordPress update on Tuesday. If you’re not seeing our emails, please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you don’t miss important announcements like this one.
Hello Allison,
I mean, if this update is so important, it should have been available within the updater couple of days before the WP update and not after the WP release.
The updater is the central source for Plugin and Theme updates, not a news feed or mailing list …
Even then, it is necessary to let the OTGS updater search for updates manually…
Sounds like a support hell for some people, as many WordPress sites will just upgrade automatically and sites immediately won’t work.
Hi Adrian – As I stated before, we did have the update available as a beta on Friday and as a production release on Monday. There was only so much we could do, as the WordPress release candidates were continuing to introduce new breaking changes even on Friday. The reason you don’t see WPML updates available immediately is because we roll out releases gradually, especially in cases like this one where we didn’t know if the final version of WordPress would introduce more issues. This is also why we recommended that people don’t update to WordPress 6.1 immediately, as all plugin and theme authors were in the same boat with the WordPress release.
Thanks for the follow-up …
WordPress releases itself should be more stable as well.
> “…all plugin and theme authors were in the same boat with the WordPress release.”
And yet, yours is the one that broke everyone’s website! 🙁
1) My websites didn’t break.
2) WPML fiddles with hundreds of the most obscure WordPress sub-features in order to implement its extensive translation capabilities.
95% of the other add-ons don’t even come close to 10% of the amount of stuff WPML does to WordPress, this is why they are “immune” from issues.
WP automatically updated my site to 6.1 before I could update WPML. Now the site is broken. How can I fix this ??
ok but the language switcher doesn’t work anymore and my website is only available in one language not the other one.
Roll the prod version as soon as possible and revert to a normal state.
You can’t just block our platform and making us loosing sales!
It’s totally unacceptable!
Hello – You can check for the update by following the steps in the last section of the announcement post, or by downloading it directly from your Downloads folder.
+1
Shame on you :
Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. If you don’t see the updates available yet, click Check for updates.
How can you make a so dirty set of plugins ? Never you said on plugin install that you have added something here (How can I know), never you said on plugin install that there were no plugin updates via WordPress interface, never you said on your plugin install that we will get 5 plugins instead of one + one unactivated installer and that the basic license / update management was not on the main plugin.
ONBOARDING WITH WPML IS A FAILURE
I was waiting for the update to come, and waiting, and waiting and then the site broke at night with WordPress self update, and then I disable the whole set of plugins keeping only WPML (Even the folder name is awful as it’s not wpml but ‘CMS’ unbelievable), and then press 100000 times the WordPress search for update button, but it was useless.
SHAME SHAME SHAME, it has to be told, where did you make this notice on the WordPress dashboard, NOWHERE !
Hi Jonathan – Thank you for your comment. I’m sorry to hear that you had a negative experience onboarding with WPML and updating to the latest version. I have shared your comments with our Client Advocate, Agnes, who can look into it further. Whenever we have a new update, we send a newsletter out to all WPML users. Please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you can be sure they don’t end up in your spam folder.
Hi,
What to do if i have no backup and wordpress is updated to 6.1 version and my site is broken?
I can’t update teh version beta of these plugins to avoid the problems of version 6.1.
How can solve it?
Hi Alejandro – the production versions of WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 were released on Monday. You can check for the updates by following the steps in the last section of the announcement above.
I have finally been able to do it but from the plugins screen, updating them, thanks!
This is really a shame… Not being retro compatible with a new WordPress version is totally unprofessional, plus WE have to spend hours uploading manually the updated versions of your plugins to solve the problem YOU created … Who is paying for this?
I hope you will provide your faithful customers with discount or anything that could help us forgive you for such a bad experience!
Hello – As the announcement states, we did our best to release a new WPML version to address the known issues with WordPress 6.1 ahead of the WordPress release. We sent a newsletter about this and had a beta available on Friday and a production version on Monday, however we recommended (and still recommend) waiting to update to WordPress 6.1 as no one had the final version available until the very last minute. The issues you’re experiencing were introduced by WordPress, and we are still doing our best to detect and resolve them all. If you aren’t getting our newsletters about new releases, please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you don’t miss important information like this announcement.
I received the info several days ago, this is not the point, the problem is that most wordpress updates are automatic and you perfectly know this.
So now this is a runaway, we are trying to update WPML before WP and when this is not possible, we have to delete the old WPML plugins to replace them with the new ones and it’s taking us hours… I don’t care if Automattic is the culprit or not, the result is a mess and a waste of time for everyone, this is not profesional at all.
I’m sorry you feel that way, and I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, the WordPress release candidates were still introducing new breaking changes even as recently as Friday, and we did not get a final version to test against until this week. It was an unfortunate schedule from the WordPress team, but we tried to offer the best possible solutions for our clients in spite of it by releasing updates ahead of the 6.1 release to fix the issues we knew about.
Different route to solve this issue till WMPL plugins are in productive mode: downgrade WP to 6.0.3 via a plugin like WP Downgrade.
Just went this route as i cannot use betas in production. Be sure to backup site and database before.
Thanks a lot for this page…we resolved our 500 errors quickly with updating all three plugins.
Great! Glad to hear it went smoothly for you.
Hello, I blocked wordpress auto update with the code in wp-config file, and waiting for your WPML update. Today is wednesday, still no WPML update in sight. When can I expect that update?
Hello – We roll out releases gradually, however you can check for the update by following the steps as explained in the last section of the announcement post.
Hi Allison,
Thanks for letting us know and for the effort to keep compatibility as high as possible in this rapidly changing environment.
I am sorry to hear from the colleagues in this thread the hours they have had to invest in remedying the incident, surely if it had happened to me I would say similar things.
I would also like to recall here the degree of complexity and usefulness of the project. My personal impression is that the folks at WPML are sparing no effort to keep the app providing the benefits it does. Maybe that would also be good to assess.
Today I found out about the problem with WP6.1 and I have arrived in time to stop the automatic update on my server. It was scheduled for a few hours.
With the sequence “Plugins > Plugin > Registered” I was able to upgrade to production versions 4.5.12 and 3.2.3.
I’m using DIVI+WPML, if DIVI doesn’t need it, I think I can wait to update to WP6.1, until a more stable WPML+WP6.1 situation.
My question is: could you tell us a reasonable time to upgrade to WP6.1?
Thank you so much
Julio
Hi there – Thanks for your kind comment. If you can wait until Monday to update to WordPress 6.1, that would be best. We will be releasing a hotfix version to address a new issue we discovered in the final WordPress 6.1 update that affects the language switcher.
Hi Allison, you indicated that on Monday you realeI can’t find your updated versions WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 in my plug in. I mean, not your BETA version. Where is it?
Hi Mercedes – We’re rolling these releases out gradually, so they won’t appear right away for all clients. You can check for the updates right away by following the steps in the last section of the announcement post above. However, we recommend waiting until Monday, as we have a hotfix coming out to fix a new issue with the language switcher that was introduced with the WordPress 6.1 final version.
I just turn off the auto updates for WordPress and manually run them. In this case, wait for WPML and WordPress to sort out the compatibilities before updating. Follow WPML instructions.
Thanks for your comment Ty. We did find a new issue in the final WordPress 6.1 release that we’re working to fix. We’ll have a hotfix release on Monday to address this issue.
Thank you Allison. Looking forward to the update. 🙂
How can I subscribe to your newsletter?
Hi Anthony – All WPML clients receive our newsletter by default, so unless you unsubscribed, you should be getting it. Please check your spam folder and be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org for future news. If you aren’t getting our newsletters, please email us at hello@wpml.org.
Hi,
I try to do so step by step, but today there seems do be a problem with your server.
Wether up date from the backend nor download the files from my acount was possible.
2 houres later I could download string translation by the commercial tab. But Activating String Translation is running since 5 minutes. When I go back to dashboard this message appears.
Class ‘WPML_ST_Settings’ not found
I am using WPML since 2014 and never had a problem like this.
Luckily it is a staging site. But I want to update 3 projects with WMPL to WP 6.1.
What are you suggesting?
BR
Jürgen
Hi there – I apologize for the inconvenience. We had a problem with our site today, but it is back up and running now. We just updated the announcement post above for some steps of what to do if your site is having problems after the WordPress 6.1 update.
You really make me consider some competitor plugins, this was not handled professionally at all! Thanks for causing me really hard time with my client’s websites yesterday.
Hi Tomas – I understand your frustration and apologize for the difficulties this release caused.
Our WPML CMS is still on Version 4.5.11 – when will you deliver finally the 4.5.12 to all customers?
If we searching für “plugins -> add new -> commercial -> beta” there is only the wheel of death 🙁
Hi Nicolas – WPML 4.5.12 is already available. You can get it from your Downloads page, or by going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates. However, we recommend waiting until Monday before updating to WordPress 6.1. We discovered one new issue in the final 6.1 release that we will address in a hotfix release on Monday.
We are running already on WordPress 6.1, but if we “going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates” there is NO new update!
Hi Philipp – That’s strange. Is WPML already updated perhaps? If not, you can also get WPML 4.5.12 from your Downloads page.
Some things are crazy here… ok, we are going now with the direct download (and waiting for monday / version 4.5.13 or whatever)
Nicolas, with the sequence “Plugins > Plugin > Registered” yesterday I was able to upgrade to production versions 4.5.12 and 3.2.3
Now could be better to wait to next monday as Allison says.
The company line of ‘WordPress breaking changes were continually being shipped all the way until Friday’ is such a joke. WordPress clearly lays out their launch schedule in public way ahead of time. It releases multiple RC and Beta versions so that plugin developers can test against them and fix these types of bugs. There’s a full code freeze period where they don’t introduce new features and breaking changes specifically to prevent this type of error. If you want more sympathy then point us to the exact code commit in WordPress that caused the fatal error so we can see the date. That will show how much time ahead that you actually had to fix this. I find it extremely hard to believe this change popped up at the last minute, it’s more likely you were asleep at the wheel.
Hi Earle – As we state in the announcement above, there were unaddressed bugs and changes between each Release Candidate version. The code freeze did not happen until Monday, with Tuesday (6.1 release day) being a major European holiday. We simply did not have a final version in time to test and address everything to our satisfaction, and we were not the only company affected by this.
Yes that is how every WordPress release in the history of WordPress works – they fix bugs between each RC. WPML had the chance to follow along with the RC, Beta, and even run the latest nightly trunks against their plugins to prevent this from becoming such an emergency. I can’t believe with the hundreds of thousands of customers you aren’t running trunk and testing your product against WordPress daily. It’s disheartening to see the blame passed onto WordPress and not own up to the errors to come up with a better process. The PR line here gives me no faith you’ll do better next time.
The biggest question that wasn’t answered: Which changeset from WordPress specifically caused the fatal error? If that change that caused the error from WordPress was committed a few days prior to the 6.1 release then I take back everything I said and fully support you. But if the changeset was weeks ago then it’s pathetic. Please advise as the developers should know exactly what caused the fatal.
Hi Earle – I am consulting with our team to get more information for you.
Hi Allison,
I did some research on my own, it looks like the fatal was introduced during RC-3 on October 25th. It gives me more sympathy for the position you were in. However based on the blog post release date/time and tone of the blog; it seems like developers on the WPML team were not downloading each RC the second it was released and testing against it. Knowing that things change between each Beta/RC and WP is the entire existence on which WPML exists I think it’d be helpful in the future to have teams on standby ready to test and urgently fix these types of things. If it was caught early enough it could have also been reported to the release leads of WordPress so they could have reverted the commits that caused the fatal as breaking changes should not (but obviously sometimes can) be released during RC time.
Hi Earle – Thanks for your patience. Yes, I was able to confirm with our team that the breaking issue was introduced with RC3 (released October 25), and it was not present in previous versions. We included a fix for this both in the beta we released on October 27 and in the final version on October 31. We found a new issue in the WP 6.1 final version as well related to language switchers. We will release a hotfix for that on Monday. I can assure you our team was testing consistently and we released the fixes with as much time as possible before WordPress 6.1.
Thanks for the follow up with the changeset. They really should not be removing functions in RC, I’m going to follow up in the WP core dev chat next week to see why that was done so late.
Thanks, Earle.
The fact that my last comment was either moderated or deleted tells me everything I need to know. You had ample time to fix the fatal error but someone dropped the ball. I hope for your sake you’re taking this seriously and radically changing your QA process because this 6.1 release is the exact same process WordPress has followed for it’s entire existence. The only thing new is WPML dropping the ball.
Hi Earle – Your comment was not deleted. I approved it this morning and will provide more information once I have it.
This SUCKS! I have multiple large important sites that are now broken…
Yours is the only plugin of the many dozens that I regularly use (including other big, complex ones) that consistently has these types of issues / errors…and they usually seem avoidable but for your poor decision making and release timing. Stability is MUCH more important the new features!
I can’t believe how frequently WPML has issues like this. I now have to spend the next couple hours fixing sites that were updating because I didn’t read your blog post (I DON”T WANT TO HAVE TO READ YOUR BLOG POST…I’m paying a lot for this plugin…make it work properly!)
I honestly can’t believe how poorly this plugin is built/managed. It’s expensive, unnecessarily complicated, and always has issues….I’m going to look for an alternative and would encourage other to vote with their wallets too. This garbage is unacceptable.
Hi Matt – I understand your frustration, and I apologize for the recent negative experience with WPML. This WPML release does not include any new features – only fixes for issues introduced in WordPress 6.1 and support for the new list-item block in Gutenberg. Any issues you’re experiencing with your sites should be fixed by updating to WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3, which will hopefully be quick to update. If you have trouble, our support team is available to chat and help solve any problems.
Hey Allison,
How do we get the WPML 4.5.12 that was released Monday? We just checked for updates and are not seeing it as available. We double-checked that our license is still active, which it is, so we aren’t sure what we’re missing.
Hi Joe – You can check for the update by going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates. Or you can download it directly from your Downloads page.
Thanks Allison, I must have missed that part of the instructions originally, but the Commercial tab was the part I was missing. Thank you guys for your clear and timely communication about this potential issue and solution!
Glad you were able to update! Have a nice week 🙂
Dear Allison,
I didn´t get to update until today, but my website is still showing the message “There has been a critical error on this website” (janmoller.com).
Do you have any advice on how to proceed to fix this?
Regards,
Jan
Hi Jan – If you managed to update to WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 already, please see our other troubleshooting tips in the section above called “What to do if WordPress 6.1 breaks your site” or contact our support team, and they can look into it further.
Hi, Allison,
Thank you for your swift reply.
What I did, was that after updating to WPML version 4.5.12, I deactivated the String Translation (that I think I am not really using) plugin and my site is now up and running. – Halleluya!! 🙂
Best wishes,
Jan
Really glad to hear it, Jan. Have a great day 🙂
Hi Allison, my provider updates my WordPress versions automatically and therefore I couldn’t delay the change to 6.1. But as recommended I had changed to the new versions or WPML CMS / String translation before. Now the change to WP 6.1 has happened and the website does not work anymore. “Does not work” means: When go on the website I see my main page, but if I call any other page I get the 404 error. I still have access to the admin pages. Any idea? Will any additional updates be launched which might fix it?
Hi Wolfgang – If you haven’t updated to String Translation 3.2.3 yet (and maybe only updated WPML core?), please see our section above about “What to do with WordPress 6.1 breaks your site.” If you did already update, please open a support ticket so our team can look into this further.
Thanks for your very quick reply. I updated both plug ins before for sure – will contact the support.
Short update: I found the solution myself. Not sure if this was unique for my webpage. But if anyone else should have a similar issue: the solution was just to go into the settings on the dashboard and click on “Permalinks”. As simple as that.
That’s great, Wolfgang. I’m glad to hear it was an easy fix.
Just wanted to say Thank You for the way you guys have handled the WordPress 6.1 update and the clear and transparent communications you have been sending out. I will be waiting till next week to update my site. Keep up the great work!
Hi,
I followed your instruction to update two WPML plugins, then it got “There has been a critical error on this website.” What is the best way to get out of this situation?
I’d like to add one thing. I realized my hosting update my WordPress automatically, so it was already 6.1 was installed when I tried to update WPML.
Hi there – There is a solution in the summary of this support ticket. Please let me know if it helps: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/fatal-error-uncaught-error-call-to-undefined-method-wp_textdomain_registry/
Hi Allison,
Thank you for the link.
I was able to remove the error by removing WPML string translation(change the plugin folder name), and then logged back in to update WPML to 4.5.12, then rename the plugin fonder to original and update WPML string translation. Then finally activate it again. So far, it looks like working fine with WP6.1. – maybe because I’m not using the string translation anywhere-
Thank you,
Eri
Thanks for the update, Eri! Glad to hear you got it working again.
How can i download WPML 4.9.12 and string translation 3.2.3
Hi Hoang – Please see the last section of the announcement above for instructions on how to get the updates.
Okay … and why haven’t you scheduled the update before for all users ????
Not everyone is monitoring this blog and getting the information. There are also sites updating WP automatically…
Hi Adrian – We released a beta on Friday for anyone who wanted it and sent out a newsletter. On Monday, we released the production version before the WordPress update on Tuesday. If you’re not seeing our emails, please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you don’t miss important announcements like this one.
Hello Allison,
I mean, if this update is so important, it should have been available within the updater couple of days before the WP update and not after the WP release.
The updater is the central source for Plugin and Theme updates, not a news feed or mailing list …
Even then, it is necessary to let the OTGS updater search for updates manually…
Sounds like a support hell for some people, as many WordPress sites will just upgrade automatically and sites immediately won’t work.
Hi Adrian – As I stated before, we did have the update available as a beta on Friday and as a production release on Monday. There was only so much we could do, as the WordPress release candidates were continuing to introduce new breaking changes even on Friday. The reason you don’t see WPML updates available immediately is because we roll out releases gradually, especially in cases like this one where we didn’t know if the final version of WordPress would introduce more issues. This is also why we recommended that people don’t update to WordPress 6.1 immediately, as all plugin and theme authors were in the same boat with the WordPress release.
Thanks for the follow-up …
WordPress releases itself should be more stable as well.
> “…all plugin and theme authors were in the same boat with the WordPress release.”
And yet, yours is the one that broke everyone’s website! 🙁
1) My websites didn’t break.
2) WPML fiddles with hundreds of the most obscure WordPress sub-features in order to implement its extensive translation capabilities.
95% of the other add-ons don’t even come close to 10% of the amount of stuff WPML does to WordPress, this is why they are “immune” from issues.
WP automatically updated my site to 6.1 before I could update WPML. Now the site is broken. How can I fix this ??
Hi Arnaud – Please see the advice in this support ticket summary: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/fatal-error-uncaught-error-call-to-undefined-method-wp_textdomain_registry/
Thanks
ok but the language switcher doesn’t work anymore and my website is only available in one language not the other one.
Roll the prod version as soon as possible and revert to a normal state.
You can’t just block our platform and making us loosing sales!
It’s totally unacceptable!
Hello – You can check for the update by following the steps in the last section of the announcement post, or by downloading it directly from your Downloads folder.
+1
Shame on you :
Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. If you don’t see the updates available yet, click Check for updates.
How can you make a so dirty set of plugins ? Never you said on plugin install that you have added something here (How can I know), never you said on plugin install that there were no plugin updates via WordPress interface, never you said on your plugin install that we will get 5 plugins instead of one + one unactivated installer and that the basic license / update management was not on the main plugin.
ONBOARDING WITH WPML IS A FAILURE
I was waiting for the update to come, and waiting, and waiting and then the site broke at night with WordPress self update, and then I disable the whole set of plugins keeping only WPML (Even the folder name is awful as it’s not wpml but ‘CMS’ unbelievable), and then press 100000 times the WordPress search for update button, but it was useless.
SHAME SHAME SHAME, it has to be told, where did you make this notice on the WordPress dashboard, NOWHERE !
Hi Jonathan – Thank you for your comment. I’m sorry to hear that you had a negative experience onboarding with WPML and updating to the latest version. I have shared your comments with our Client Advocate, Agnes, who can look into it further. Whenever we have a new update, we send a newsletter out to all WPML users. Please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you can be sure they don’t end up in your spam folder.
Hi,
What to do if i have no backup and wordpress is updated to 6.1 version and my site is broken?
Hi Lukasz – Please see this support ticket: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/fatal-error-uncaught-error-call-to-undefined-method-wp_textdomain_registry/
Hi Allison,
I can’t update teh version beta of these plugins to avoid the problems of version 6.1.
How can solve it?
Hi Alejandro – the production versions of WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 were released on Monday. You can check for the updates by following the steps in the last section of the announcement above.
I have finally been able to do it but from the plugins screen, updating them, thanks!
This is really a shame… Not being retro compatible with a new WordPress version is totally unprofessional, plus WE have to spend hours uploading manually the updated versions of your plugins to solve the problem YOU created … Who is paying for this?
I hope you will provide your faithful customers with discount or anything that could help us forgive you for such a bad experience!
Hello – As the announcement states, we did our best to release a new WPML version to address the known issues with WordPress 6.1 ahead of the WordPress release. We sent a newsletter about this and had a beta available on Friday and a production version on Monday, however we recommended (and still recommend) waiting to update to WordPress 6.1 as no one had the final version available until the very last minute. The issues you’re experiencing were introduced by WordPress, and we are still doing our best to detect and resolve them all. If you aren’t getting our newsletters about new releases, please be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org so you don’t miss important information like this announcement.
I received the info several days ago, this is not the point, the problem is that most wordpress updates are automatic and you perfectly know this.
So now this is a runaway, we are trying to update WPML before WP and when this is not possible, we have to delete the old WPML plugins to replace them with the new ones and it’s taking us hours… I don’t care if Automattic is the culprit or not, the result is a mess and a waste of time for everyone, this is not profesional at all.
I’m sorry you feel that way, and I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, the WordPress release candidates were still introducing new breaking changes even as recently as Friday, and we did not get a final version to test against until this week. It was an unfortunate schedule from the WordPress team, but we tried to offer the best possible solutions for our clients in spite of it by releasing updates ahead of the 6.1 release to fix the issues we knew about.
Different route to solve this issue till WMPL plugins are in productive mode: downgrade WP to 6.0.3 via a plugin like WP Downgrade.
Just went this route as i cannot use betas in production. Be sure to backup site and database before.
Thanks a lot for this page…we resolved our 500 errors quickly with updating all three plugins.
Great! Glad to hear it went smoothly for you.
Hello, I blocked wordpress auto update with the code in wp-config file, and waiting for your WPML update. Today is wednesday, still no WPML update in sight. When can I expect that update?
Hello – We roll out releases gradually, however you can check for the update by following the steps as explained in the last section of the announcement post.
Hi Allison,
Thanks for letting us know and for the effort to keep compatibility as high as possible in this rapidly changing environment.
I am sorry to hear from the colleagues in this thread the hours they have had to invest in remedying the incident, surely if it had happened to me I would say similar things.
I would also like to recall here the degree of complexity and usefulness of the project. My personal impression is that the folks at WPML are sparing no effort to keep the app providing the benefits it does. Maybe that would also be good to assess.
Today I found out about the problem with WP6.1 and I have arrived in time to stop the automatic update on my server. It was scheduled for a few hours.
With the sequence “Plugins > Plugin > Registered” I was able to upgrade to production versions 4.5.12 and 3.2.3.
I’m using DIVI+WPML, if DIVI doesn’t need it, I think I can wait to update to WP6.1, until a more stable WPML+WP6.1 situation.
My question is: could you tell us a reasonable time to upgrade to WP6.1?
Thank you so much
Julio
Hi there – Thanks for your kind comment. If you can wait until Monday to update to WordPress 6.1, that would be best. We will be releasing a hotfix version to address a new issue we discovered in the final WordPress 6.1 update that affects the language switcher.
Hi Allison, you indicated that on Monday you realeI can’t find your updated versions WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 in my plug in. I mean, not your BETA version. Where is it?
Hi Mercedes – We’re rolling these releases out gradually, so they won’t appear right away for all clients. You can check for the updates right away by following the steps in the last section of the announcement post above. However, we recommend waiting until Monday, as we have a hotfix coming out to fix a new issue with the language switcher that was introduced with the WordPress 6.1 final version.
I just turn off the auto updates for WordPress and manually run them. In this case, wait for WPML and WordPress to sort out the compatibilities before updating. Follow WPML instructions.
Thanks for your comment Ty. We did find a new issue in the final WordPress 6.1 release that we’re working to fix. We’ll have a hotfix release on Monday to address this issue.
Thank you Allison. Looking forward to the update. 🙂
How can I subscribe to your newsletter?
Hi Anthony – All WPML clients receive our newsletter by default, so unless you unsubscribed, you should be getting it. Please check your spam folder and be sure to whitelist hello@wpml.org for future news. If you aren’t getting our newsletters, please email us at hello@wpml.org.
Hi,
I try to do so step by step, but today there seems do be a problem with your server.
Wether up date from the backend nor download the files from my acount was possible.
2 houres later I could download string translation by the commercial tab. But Activating String Translation is running since 5 minutes. When I go back to dashboard this message appears.
Class ‘WPML_ST_Settings’ not found
I am using WPML since 2014 and never had a problem like this.
Luckily it is a staging site. But I want to update 3 projects with WMPL to WP 6.1.
What are you suggesting?
BR
Jürgen
Hi there – I apologize for the inconvenience. We had a problem with our site today, but it is back up and running now. We just updated the announcement post above for some steps of what to do if your site is having problems after the WordPress 6.1 update.
You really make me consider some competitor plugins, this was not handled professionally at all! Thanks for causing me really hard time with my client’s websites yesterday.
Hi Tomas – I understand your frustration and apologize for the difficulties this release caused.
Our WPML CMS is still on Version 4.5.11 – when will you deliver finally the 4.5.12 to all customers?
If we searching für “plugins -> add new -> commercial -> beta” there is only the wheel of death 🙁
Hi Nicolas – WPML 4.5.12 is already available. You can get it from your Downloads page, or by going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates. However, we recommend waiting until Monday before updating to WordPress 6.1. We discovered one new issue in the final 6.1 release that we will address in a hotfix release on Monday.
We are running already on WordPress 6.1, but if we “going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates” there is NO new update!
Hi Philipp – That’s strange. Is WPML already updated perhaps? If not, you can also get WPML 4.5.12 from your Downloads page.
Some things are crazy here… ok, we are going now with the direct download (and waiting for monday / version 4.5.13 or whatever)
If you have any trouble, our support team is available for chat here: https://wpml.org/forums/forum/english-support/
Nicolas, with the sequence “Plugins > Plugin > Registered” yesterday I was able to upgrade to production versions 4.5.12 and 3.2.3
Now could be better to wait to next monday as Allison says.
The company line of ‘WordPress breaking changes were continually being shipped all the way until Friday’ is such a joke. WordPress clearly lays out their launch schedule in public way ahead of time. It releases multiple RC and Beta versions so that plugin developers can test against them and fix these types of bugs. There’s a full code freeze period where they don’t introduce new features and breaking changes specifically to prevent this type of error. If you want more sympathy then point us to the exact code commit in WordPress that caused the fatal error so we can see the date. That will show how much time ahead that you actually had to fix this. I find it extremely hard to believe this change popped up at the last minute, it’s more likely you were asleep at the wheel.
Hi Earle – As we state in the announcement above, there were unaddressed bugs and changes between each Release Candidate version. The code freeze did not happen until Monday, with Tuesday (6.1 release day) being a major European holiday. We simply did not have a final version in time to test and address everything to our satisfaction, and we were not the only company affected by this.
Yes that is how every WordPress release in the history of WordPress works – they fix bugs between each RC. WPML had the chance to follow along with the RC, Beta, and even run the latest nightly trunks against their plugins to prevent this from becoming such an emergency. I can’t believe with the hundreds of thousands of customers you aren’t running trunk and testing your product against WordPress daily. It’s disheartening to see the blame passed onto WordPress and not own up to the errors to come up with a better process. The PR line here gives me no faith you’ll do better next time.
The biggest question that wasn’t answered: Which changeset from WordPress specifically caused the fatal error? If that change that caused the error from WordPress was committed a few days prior to the 6.1 release then I take back everything I said and fully support you. But if the changeset was weeks ago then it’s pathetic. Please advise as the developers should know exactly what caused the fatal.
Hi Earle – I am consulting with our team to get more information for you.
Hi Allison,
I did some research on my own, it looks like the fatal was introduced during RC-3 on October 25th. It gives me more sympathy for the position you were in. However based on the blog post release date/time and tone of the blog; it seems like developers on the WPML team were not downloading each RC the second it was released and testing against it. Knowing that things change between each Beta/RC and WP is the entire existence on which WPML exists I think it’d be helpful in the future to have teams on standby ready to test and urgently fix these types of things. If it was caught early enough it could have also been reported to the release leads of WordPress so they could have reverted the commits that caused the fatal as breaking changes should not (but obviously sometimes can) be released during RC time.
Hi Earle – Thanks for your patience. Yes, I was able to confirm with our team that the breaking issue was introduced with RC3 (released October 25), and it was not present in previous versions. We included a fix for this both in the beta we released on October 27 and in the final version on October 31. We found a new issue in the WP 6.1 final version as well related to language switchers. We will release a hotfix for that on Monday. I can assure you our team was testing consistently and we released the fixes with as much time as possible before WordPress 6.1.
Just to follow up one more time, this is the specific breaking change that was introduced: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/54682
Thanks for the follow up with the changeset. They really should not be removing functions in RC, I’m going to follow up in the WP core dev chat next week to see why that was done so late.
Thanks, Earle.
The fact that my last comment was either moderated or deleted tells me everything I need to know. You had ample time to fix the fatal error but someone dropped the ball. I hope for your sake you’re taking this seriously and radically changing your QA process because this 6.1 release is the exact same process WordPress has followed for it’s entire existence. The only thing new is WPML dropping the ball.
Hi Earle – Your comment was not deleted. I approved it this morning and will provide more information once I have it.
This SUCKS! I have multiple large important sites that are now broken…
Yours is the only plugin of the many dozens that I regularly use (including other big, complex ones) that consistently has these types of issues / errors…and they usually seem avoidable but for your poor decision making and release timing. Stability is MUCH more important the new features!
I can’t believe how frequently WPML has issues like this. I now have to spend the next couple hours fixing sites that were updating because I didn’t read your blog post (I DON”T WANT TO HAVE TO READ YOUR BLOG POST…I’m paying a lot for this plugin…make it work properly!)
I honestly can’t believe how poorly this plugin is built/managed. It’s expensive, unnecessarily complicated, and always has issues….I’m going to look for an alternative and would encourage other to vote with their wallets too. This garbage is unacceptable.
Hi Matt – I understand your frustration, and I apologize for the recent negative experience with WPML. This WPML release does not include any new features – only fixes for issues introduced in WordPress 6.1 and support for the new list-item block in Gutenberg. Any issues you’re experiencing with your sites should be fixed by updating to WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3, which will hopefully be quick to update. If you have trouble, our support team is available to chat and help solve any problems.
Hey Allison,
How do we get the WPML 4.5.12 that was released Monday? We just checked for updates and are not seeing it as available. We double-checked that our license is still active, which it is, so we aren’t sure what we’re missing.
Hi Joe – You can check for the update by going to Plugins → Add New and clicking the Commercial tab. Then click Check for updates. Or you can download it directly from your Downloads page.
Thanks Allison, I must have missed that part of the instructions originally, but the Commercial tab was the part I was missing. Thank you guys for your clear and timely communication about this potential issue and solution!
Glad you were able to update! Have a nice week 🙂
Dear Allison,
I didn´t get to update until today, but my website is still showing the message “There has been a critical error on this website” (janmoller.com).
Do you have any advice on how to proceed to fix this?
Regards,
Jan
Hi Jan – If you managed to update to WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3 already, please see our other troubleshooting tips in the section above called “What to do if WordPress 6.1 breaks your site” or contact our support team, and they can look into it further.
Hi, Allison,
Thank you for your swift reply.
What I did, was that after updating to WPML version 4.5.12, I deactivated the String Translation (that I think I am not really using) plugin and my site is now up and running. – Halleluya!! 🙂
Best wishes,
Jan
Really glad to hear it, Jan. Have a great day 🙂
Hi Allison, my provider updates my WordPress versions automatically and therefore I couldn’t delay the change to 6.1. But as recommended I had changed to the new versions or WPML CMS / String translation before. Now the change to WP 6.1 has happened and the website does not work anymore. “Does not work” means: When go on the website I see my main page, but if I call any other page I get the 404 error. I still have access to the admin pages. Any idea? Will any additional updates be launched which might fix it?
Hi Wolfgang – If you haven’t updated to String Translation 3.2.3 yet (and maybe only updated WPML core?), please see our section above about “What to do with WordPress 6.1 breaks your site.” If you did already update, please open a support ticket so our team can look into this further.
Thanks for your very quick reply. I updated both plug ins before for sure – will contact the support.
Short update: I found the solution myself. Not sure if this was unique for my webpage. But if anyone else should have a similar issue: the solution was just to go into the settings on the dashboard and click on “Permalinks”. As simple as that.
That’s great, Wolfgang. I’m glad to hear it was an easy fix.
Just wanted to say Thank You for the way you guys have handled the WordPress 6.1 update and the clear and transparent communications you have been sending out. I will be waiting till next week to update my site. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the kind comment, Jair 🙂