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This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
The tools tab in the Translation Management section shows an error message "There is a problem connecting to automatic translation. Please check your internet connection and try again in a few minutes".
Solution:
The problem was caused by a known compatibility issue with the "Email Encoder" plugin. Please create a full backup of your site. Then, visit our errata page for the "Email Encoder" plugin at https://wpml.org/errata/email-encoder-protect-email-addresses-and-phone-numbers-there-is-a-problem-connecting-to-automatic-translation/ and try the workarounds provided there.

If you still need assistance, don't hesitate to open a new support ticket with us.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

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This topic contains 8 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Mohamed Sayed 9 months, 2 weeks ago.

Assisted by: Mohamed Sayed.

Author Posts
January 28, 2024 at 12:17 am #15233474

mariuszM-13

I am trying to: access tools

Link to a page where the issue can be seen: translation managenent/tools

I expected to see: tools

Instead, I got: message "There is a problem connecting to automatic translation. Please check your internet connection and try again in a few minutes. If you continue to see this message, please". So I am contacting you

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January 28, 2024 at 6:42 pm #15234738

Mohamed Sayed

Hi Mariusz,
Thanks for contacting WPML support.

This could be a temporary connection issue, please go to ​​Dashboard > Updates and click the "Check again" link.

If the issue persists, go to WPML > Support > Installer Support and click the "Check now" button, and see if any errors appear in the Installer Log.

Let me know please how that goes.

Kind regards,
Mohamed

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January 28, 2024 at 7:37 pm #15234834

mariuszM-13

Installer page shows green tickboxes and nothing in the log. Tools still don't work. Also, nothing else in any other error log.

I have now checked another website of another client that also uses WPML PRO on his separate WPML account. That site is located on a completely different server with another provider and tools also do not load.

January 29, 2024 at 9:10 am #15236724

Mohamed Sayed

I just checked on a clean installation and I can't replicate the issue, please check here: hidden link

You can also access the site to check with this link hidden link

Could you please try the following steps?

1- Go to your account page (https://wpml.org/account/sites/)
2- Delete the key for the site
3- Go to Plugins-> Add new-> Commercial tab
4- Click on "Unregister WPML from this site"
5- Click on "Register WPML"
6- Click on "Get a key for this site"
7- Create the new key and use it to register in Plugins-> Add new-> Commercial tab

If the issue persists, please check again in a minimal environment by following these steps:

- Deactivate all the plugins that are not related to WPML.
- Switch for a moment to a WordPress default theme like Twenty Twenty-one.
- If the issue is gone, activate one by one to see with which one there is an interaction issue.

❌ Please backup your database and website before performing the above test ❌

Let me know please how that goes.

February 1, 2024 at 9:31 am #15253490

mariuszM-13

These are both working sites of my clients. I cannot just switch themes or deactivate all plugins. I have however deregistered one of the sites, created a new key and re-regitered and still cannot access tools.

It mitght have something to do with Litespeed cache plugin, but you cat test it on your end, not mine.

February 1, 2024 at 1:33 pm #15255218

Mohamed Sayed

I installed the Litespeed cache plugin on the sandbox site, but I'm still unable to replicate the issue. Please create a full backup then disable the plugin temporarily and check if the issue is fixed.

If that didn't help, please provide the following so we can investigate this issue further on our side:

1. Please provide us with the WordPress debug.log, this will allow us to see if any PHP errors are being produced. More Info: https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/

To enable it, open your wp-config.php file and look for:

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

And change it to:

define('WP_DEBUG', true);
// Enable Debug logging to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
// Disable display of errors and warnings which is recommended on a live site.
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
@ini_set('display_errors',0);

Then visit and check if any errors were saved to the debug.log log file inside the /wp-content/ directory
If you can paste your debug.log to https://pastebin.com/ and provide me that link, it would be great!

2. Kindly create a copy of your site and provide a link to download it. You can use the Duplicator plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/) or the All-in-One WP Migration plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/).

The plugin will create a package file that you can download then upload again to Google Drive or Dropbox and share the download link in the next reply which I have marked as private. Then I’ll debug the issue locally without affecting the live site.

Please check here for more details: https://wpml.org/faq/provide-supporters-copy-site/
Thanks for your cooperation.

February 4, 2024 at 11:52 am #15263416

Mohamed Sayed

The debug.log doesn't show any specific issues related to WPML.

Please contact your hosting provider, check if there is a firewall and ask them to whitelist the following domains:

- wpml.org
- cdn.wpml.org
- api.wpml.org
- api.toolset.com
- cloudfront.net

I'm also checking with our systems team if the site is blocked from our side.

February 4, 2024 at 1:21 pm #15263506

mariuszM-13

Am I talking to a robot? I have told you there is nothing related in the debug log and your answer is "The debug.log doesn't show any specific issues related to WPML. " Just wasted another 12 hours of my time. Now you have no idea what the problem is, so you want me to contact a hosting provider to push the problem on them. The problem exists on at least two independent hosting providers. So what is more likely? That they blocked wpml for some reason, but only partially, so everything works apart from accessing tools? Or perhaps that you have messed up coding and acessing tools sometimes does not work?

If you want, you can contact the hosting providers... I will give you contact emails and wish good luck. And once I install WPML for more of my clients that have hosting somewhere else, I will send you a few more contact emails to them as well. So you can email all of them saying "we have no idea why our product does not work, perhaps you can make it work".

February 4, 2024 at 3:29 pm #15263632

Mohamed Sayed

I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused by this issue.

I checked the list of your installed plugins and found you're using the "Email Encoder" plugin. There is a known compatibility issue with this plugin causing this problem.

Please create a full backup and check if any of the 2 workarounds provided in the following errata page help to fix this issue: https://wpml.org/errata/email-encoder-protect-email-addresses-and-phone-numbers-there-is-a-problem-connecting-to-automatic-translation/

February 9, 2024 at 11:14 am #15285413

mariuszM-13

Adding the following code helped. However I would not say the other plugin causes this problem. I would say that perhaps your plugin is not compatible with that one. Why don't you just email their developers and tell them the compatibility issue exists between your plugins and find a sulution for all your customers? It's been at least a year since you were made aware of compatibility issues. Since then bot yours and the orher plugins have have a few updates. Is it really that difficult to solve the problem together?

add_filter('eeb/validate/is_post_excluded', function($return){
if (is_user_logged_in() && !empty($_GET['wpml-app'])) {
return true;
}
return $return;
});

Having reported quite a few issues withing the first few weeks of using your pluging makes me think whether it is a good product. Other plugins work seamlesly, but your keep having issues. Also, you guys seem to have the some kind of instructions how to respond to any issue with WPML and you always do one of the following.

1. Blame the user for wrong plugin setup.
2. Assume the user is an idiot and ask them to give access to the site.
3. Blame other plugins.
4. Blame the hosting provider.

If you just listened from the beginning you would have found the solution to this issue, but also many others on day one, since you have already resolved the problem at least a year ago. But instead it took over a week to find the solution that you have had ready for at least a year!

Also. Every time you blame the wrong setup ask yourself. Is the setup not to difficult then? Perhaps you can update the UX and UI and then userws will know how to set up your software properly and won't have these problems.

If you believe your users are idiots and prefer to acces their sites on your own to understand the issue, then consider giving better isructions how to describe each problem. Have a database of solved problems where using a few keywords you could find solutions straight away without even checking the site. In this case it would have been "tools" and "connection".

If you keep blaming other plugins and almost each time your annoyed user finally finds the plugin that WPML does not work with, then ask yourself... Why don't we contact other plugin developers once to solve compatibility issues once for all? You guys deal with each instance of each problem multiple times a year knowing here is a compatibility issue and these are not users who should solve it, but developers of conflicting plugins.

Actually, wjy is there such a big problem with WPML compatibility? Why other plugins work well with one another, but there is always so many problem with working with WMPL? Perhaps there is something you can do about it. Or perhaps you should write an instruction for plugin developers how to avoid compatibility issues with multilingual wordpress? These instructions should be avaliable with all wordpress plugin development manuals.

Fially, if you blaming hosting providers think what services are really conflicting and how little impact on hosting providers a normal wordpress user have. Services offered by hosting providers are standarised, so practically every hosting provider offers the same thing. They build the physical internet and develop it, so you should try to keep up with your software, not blame them for your software misbehaving. They are not going to change and they will tell you what I tell you. Software provided by others work with their servers. Only your have issues, so you better work on better code.