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WPML 4.9.5 – Full PHP 8.5 Support and a Smoother Site Migration Experience

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WPML 4.9.5 is now available. This release brings full compatibility with PHP 8.5 and fixes some notices for PHP 8.4. It also greatly improves the flow for moving or copying your WordPress site to a new domain.

Here’s what’s new.

Full Compatibility with PHP 8.5 and PHP 8.4

WPML 4.9.5 is fully tested and compatible with PHP 8.5 and PHP 8.4.

Recent PHP versions are stricter about certain coding patterns and raise deprecation notices for them. Left unaddressed, these notices clutter your logs and, depending on your server configuration, can surface as warnings in the WordPress admin.

We resolved issues for WPML core plugin and all of its companion components: String Translation, Media Translation, CMS Nav, and the shared libraries they rely on.

A few things worth knowing:

  • Nothing changes for you if you’re on an older PHP version. We made these fixes while keeping WPML compatible with the full range of PHP versions we support, all the way back to PHP 7.4. You can update to 4.9.5 safely no matter which PHP version your server runs.
  • If you’re already running PHP 8.4 or 8.5, you’ll get a clean experience with no WPML-related deprecation notices.

If you’ve been holding back on upgrading your server’s PHP version, WPML is ready when you are.

A Smoother, Clearer Site Migration Flow

Whenever you copy or move a WordPress site to a new address — pushing a staging site to production, switching hosts, or cloning a site for a new project — WPML needs to recognize the new location so your translations, translation credits, and translation memory stay correctly linked to the original site.

Now, WPML automates this for you: when it detects that your site has moved, it handles the reconnection in the background and shows you a notice explaining what happened. WPML 4.9.5 polishes several rough edges in that flow so it’s clearer and more dependable.

  • Migration notices now appear right away. In some situations, there used to be a short window where your site looked like it was working normally, but the next translation action would fail — and the notice explaining the situation only appeared afterwards. WPML now surfaces that notice on the same page load, so you always know your site’s state and what to do next, before anything breaks.
  • You’re told why a change happened. WPML includes a safety check that detects when the advanced “alias domain” option was set up by mistake and automatically corrects it. Previously, that correction could happen with no on-screen explanation, leaving site owners wondering why their site had suddenly changed. The migration notice now includes a short, plain-language explanation of what WPML detected and why it acted — no more unexplained resets.
  • The alias-domain option is reachable again. Some advanced setups genuinely run the same WordPress installation under two different URLs. For those cases, you can again register an alias domain manually from WPML’s Troubleshooting page. WPML verifies in the background that the URL really points to the same installation before saving it, so an accidental typo or wrong entry can’t quietly misconfigure your site.
  • Sites that were mid-migration before updating now recover correctly. If your site carried over a leftover migration “lock” from an earlier version that state could leave the Translation Dashboard locked with no visible way to continue. For example, this can happen because the site had been moved to a new domain, or because a migration was started but never finished. Updating to 4.9.5 clears this stale state automatically: WPML re-detects the migration, shows the right notice, and your Dashboard works again.

Together, these changes mean fewer surprises and a clearer path forward whenever your site changes address.

Other Improvements

WPML 4.9.5 also includes a range of smaller fixes and performance improvements across the plugin. You can find the complete list in the changelog.

How to Update to WPML 4.9.5

As always, we recommend backing up your site before updating.

We’re releasing WPML 4.9.5 gradually. When it becomes available to your site, you’ll see it on your Plugins page.

If you’d like to update right away, use the following steps:

1

In your site’s admin, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin and click the Commercial tab

2

Click the Check for updates button

3

Select WPML 4.9.5 and any other WPML component you’re using and click Install

As always, if you run into any issues, our support forum is here to help.

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