Post categories in original language have disappeared

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

Problem:
The client reported that after a WPML update, the original language categories on their website disappeared, leaving only the categories in the translated language (Spanish). Attempting to recreate the categories in the original language resulted in duplicate category slugs (e.g., 'news-2').
Solution:
We suggested that the disappearance of the categories might be due to changes in the database after uninstalling WPML, rather than a direct issue caused by WPML itself. To address this, we recommended the following steps:
1. Navigate to WPML -> Support -> Troubleshooting.
2. Click on 'Set language information'. For more details, visit WPML Troubleshooting Options.
3. Check if the original language categories reappear after these steps.
If the issue persists, it might be unrelated to WPML or due to other configuration issues. In such cases, we highly recommend checking related known issues at WPML Known Issues, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins.
If this solution does not resolve the issue or seems irrelevant, please open a new support ticket at WPML Support Forum for further assistance.

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.

Tagged: Documentation request, Not WPML issue

This topic contains 9 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Carlos Rojas 3 weeks, 2 days ago.

Assisted by: Carlos Rojas.

Author	Posts
April 4, 2025 at 9:23 pm #16899087
karenM-15	Background of the issue: I need help with post categories on my site hidden link. WPML has deleted my original language categories and only kept the Spanish, translated versions. Symptoms: Post categories in the original language have disappeared. Questions: How do I fix the issue of missing original language categories?
April 6, 2025 at 1:13 pm #16901271
Osama Mersal WPML Supporter since 02/2020 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. First of all, sorry for the late reply; it was due to a higher workload. Please let me know if you changed the default language recently or edited the English language on the WPML-> Languages page. Best regards, Osama
April 6, 2025 at 5:44 pm #16901856
karenM-15	Hello Osama! Thank you for your help. I still need assistance, and no, I have made no edits since Friday. As you can see, because of this , my posts are now showing up on my website. hidden link
April 7, 2025 at 8:56 am #16902991
Carlos Rojas WPML Supporter since 03/2017 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)	Hello, My name is Carlos, and I will continue working on this ticket because my colleague Osama is on vacation. Could you tell me why you said: "WPML has deleted my original language categories" in your original message? Why WPML? Regards!
April 7, 2025 at 7:30 pm #16906039
karenM-15	Hello Carlos, The categories in the English language have disappeared or been hidden and only show up in Spanish. But when I try to re-make the category in English (the site's native language) it does a dash-2 for example: news-2. Please help.
April 8, 2025 at 8:57 am #16907789
Carlos Rojas WPML Supporter since 03/2017 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)	Thank you very much for your message. However, you haven't answered my question: why do you suspect WPML is related to this issue? Important note: I'm asking this because WPML plugins do not change the site's content in the original language.
April 8, 2025 at 5:17 pm #16910490
karenM-15	Because the categories disappeared when WPML did its latest update. I had to uninstall the WPML and roll the site back to before I installed WPML.
April 9, 2025 at 9:12 am #16912085
Carlos Rojas WPML Supporter since 03/2017 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)	Hi there, If you uninstalled WPML then the content lost the information in the database, which means that this is the cause of the issue, a human error, not WPML plugins. Please go to WPML -> Support -> Troubleshooting link -> Click on 'Set language information' (https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-troubleshooting-options/) then double-check if the issue disappeared.
April 9, 2025 at 5:04 pm #16915157
karenM-15	Hello, I did what you suggested and it didn't work. This has been awfully unhelpful. I had to remove WPML from my site and still need assistance.
April 10, 2025 at 8:57 am #16917313
Carlos Rojas WPML Supporter since 03/2017 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)	Hi there, I still don't see the connection between WPML plugins and the missing categories in the original language, but I would like to take a closer look at the site and see if there is something in the configuration that might be related to this behavior, however, as I mentioned before, WPML doesn't make changes in the content of the original language, including the categories. Please share the access credentials to the site in your next message that I have set private. Make sure the WPML plugins are activated. Confirm you have a full site backup that you can restore if necessary.