Foreign language sites not showing the foreign language menu

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

Problem:
The client was experiencing an issue where the blue menu beneath the black header was not showing links to their respective translated categories. Instead, all links were directing to the English category permalinks. This issue started occurring after 29/04.

Solution:
1. Go to Appearance -> Menus, and copy the menu ID (for example, 37).
2. Navigate to WPML -> String Translation.
3. Scroll down and click on the "Translate texts in admin screens »" link.
4. Search for the menu ID.
5. Select the string related to the menu ID.
6. Click on the "Add to String Translation" button.
7. Then click on the "« Return to String Translation" link.
8. Translate the menu ID into the translated menus IDs.

For more detailed instructions, please refer to our guide on translating texts in the admin texts screen.

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we recommend opening a new support ticket. We also highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins.

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Tagged: Documentation request

This topic contains 9 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Osama Mersal 1 month ago.

Assisted by: Osama Mersal.

Author	Posts
April 3, 2024 at 2:46 pm #15479107
zakW	I am trying to: The blue menu (beneath the black header) should be showing links to their respective translated categories, but instead all direct to the English category permalinks. This was working prior to 29/04 Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link hidden link hidden link Every foreign language category is wrong. I expected to see: I would expect in the German site (/de/) to see all the links in the blue menu go to their respective German translated categories, for French (/fr/) to go to their French version, and US (/us/) to go to their US verison. Instead, I got: All going to the base English version. --- I have tried the following: - Clear the cache in WPML - Synchronize post taxonomies for Navigation menus - Disable our Breeze (Varnish) cache and Cloudflare cache - Re-saving the permalinks - Unset the menu from a menu location and re-saving - Do the Menu Sync between languages (twice) The foreign menus definitely exist (screenshot 'CleanShot 2024-04-03 at 3.41.54.jpg'). We have only just resolved a previous ticket with WPML on a different issue, our client will not want to wait long to get this resolved. Please can we have this looked at and advised?
April 3, 2024 at 3:24 pm #15479394
zakW	Additional information: - Redis is not enabled on the server - Have tried clearing the Template cache - The footer menus all seem perfectly fine - I have tried this solution https://wpml.org/forums/topic/menu-translations-showing-original-language/
April 3, 2024 at 5:15 pm #15479767
Osama Mersal Supporter Languages: English (English ) Arabic (العربية ) Timezone: Africa/Cairo (GMT+03:00)	Hi, Thanks for contacting WPML forums support. I'll be glad to help you today. I would need to look closely at your site, so I would need to request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) Preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated. Your answer will be private, meaning only you and I can access it. ❌ Please backup your database and website ❌ ✙ I need your permission to deactivate and reactivate the plugins and themes and change site configurations. This is also why the backup is critical. ✙ I also need your permission to take a local copy of your site to debug the issue without affecting your live site. Best regards, Osama
April 4, 2024 at 2:49 pm #15484425
Osama Mersal Supporter Languages: English (English ) Arabic (العربية ) Timezone: Africa/Cairo (GMT+03:00)	Hi Ruben, Thanks for the access details. I checked the issue and was able to fix it by translating the menu ID via WPML-> String Translation. (hidden link) Could you please check if the translated menu URLs work correctly? Best regards, Osama
April 4, 2024 at 3:14 pm #15484580
zakW	Hi Osama, I can confirm this worked on the staging site but I'm trying to see exactly what you did to replicate this on the live website but I can't find it. Can you please explain to me what you did? -- Thanks Ruben
April 4, 2024 at 3:18 pm #15484613
Osama Mersal Supporter Languages: English (English ) Arabic (العربية ) Timezone: Africa/Cairo (GMT+03:00)	Hi Ruben, Please check the following steps: 1- Go to Appearance-> Menus, and copy the menu ID (37) 2- Go to WPML-> String Translation 3- Scroll down and click on the "Translate texts in admin screens »" link 4- Search for the ID 5- Select the string 6- Click on the "Add to String Translation" button 7- Then click on the "« Return to String Translation" link 8- Translate the ID into the translated menus IDs Kindly check our guide to know more about translating texts in the admin texts screen. (https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/string-translation/finding-strings-that-dont-appear-on-the-string-translation-page/) You can copy the IDs from the staging site. Best regards, Osama
April 5, 2024 at 7:52 am #15486550
zakW	Hi Osama, The solution you mentioned worked for the live website so thank you for that. One question remains why this happened now? We never had this happening before so really strange to see this happening. Thank Ruben
April 5, 2024 at 1:53 pm #15488433
Osama Mersal Supporter Languages: English (English ) Arabic (العربية ) Timezone: Africa/Cairo (GMT+03:00)	Hi Ruben, I'm not sure why you need these steps now, but it could be that an update happened to your theme or its plugins. Best regards, Osama
April 5, 2024 at 2:02 pm #15488463
zakW	Hi Osama, As I said before the menu was working on Thursday last week and since then no plugin updates have been made. I would understand if that was the case but it's not. We have other similar websites with similar plugins and all are working on those. Has this problem been reported before? Thanks Ruben
April 5, 2024 at 2:06 pm #15488489
Osama Mersal Supporter Languages: English (English ) Arabic (العربية ) Timezone: Africa/Cairo (GMT+03:00)	Hi Ruben, Some themes' menus don't work correctly unless you translate their IDs. However, I don't recall similar tickets with your theme, but translating IDs is a known fix for menus when they are not translated correctly. Best regards, Osama
April 5, 2024 at 2:41 pm #15488659
zakW	Hi Osama, Thank you for the support with this ticket. Your solution worked really well If we do have any more problems we will open a new ticket

zakW confirmed that the issue was resolved on 2024-04-05 14:41:52.
This ticket is now closed. If you're a WPML client and need related help, please open a new support ticket.