WPML language switcher is not working

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

Issue:
The client was experiencing issues with machine translation on their website after building it with widgets from a purchased theme, which WPML did not recognize. Despite rebuilding the pages with default Elementor widgets and completing the translations based on WordPress, the translations were not showing when changing languages on the live site.

Solution:
First, we suggested the customer try to get live support by closing the current ticket and opening a new live chat request. However, due to limited availability, we also offered to continue support through the support ticket. Several recommendations were made to solve the problem:
1. Create a full backup of the website.
2. Update all site components to the latest version.
3. Increase WP memory limit to 256M by adding the following code to the

wp-config.php

file before the line

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

/* WP Memory Limit */define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

4. Increase MaxInputVars to 50000 or more, which may require assistance from the hosting provider. If these solutions are not relevant because they are outdated or do not apply to the client's specific case, we recommend open a new support ticket. It is also highly recommended to review known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, check the version of the permanent solution and confirm that the latest versions of themes and plugins have been installed. If additional assistance is needed, please contact the WPML support team at https://wpml. org/forums/forum/spanish-support/.

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: Exception

This topic contains 14 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by Mihai Apetrei 1 year, 4 months ago.

Assisted by: Mihai Apetrei.

Author	Posts
March 28, 2024 at 10:57 pm #15462808
isabelM-8	I need some live assistance with this issue I'm having, I initially built the website using different widgets from the purchased theme we got not knowing that WMPL was not going to recognize those widgets, I made an automatic translation at when I first installed and setup the plugin, but nothing was showing when switching between the different languages. I then decided to delete all the pages and rebuild the original language (english) with only default elementor widgets, according to WordPress all translations are complete but when I switch on the live website between the languages nothing comes up, I really need some live assistance, a chat or something that can help me.
March 28, 2024 at 11:33 pm #15462865
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Hi there. If you would prefer a live chat, please close this ticket by marking it as resolved and then try to open a new request. But I can tell you that, at this moment, there is not a lot of empty spots for live chat sessions. The best timezone with the most live chat spots available is the European one. The way the live chat system works is that, as long as there's an open slot on one of the colleagues that are handling live chats, your request will automatically assigned to a live chat. If there's no empty slots, your request is turned into a support ticket automatically. If you want me to help you with this, I won't be able to be as fast as a live chat session but if you can try to give me an example of a page where there's no translation showing up and if you can share the website credentials in the private fields I am enabling below (ONLY BEFORE A FULL WEBSITE BACKUP IS CREATED), I am happy to try to help you 🙂 But again, it might take a few hours. I am activating the private fields below in case you want to give this a go. If not, you can try to close this and reopen a live chat or you can try later. Mihai
March 29, 2024 at 10:56 pm #15465829
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Hi and thank you for the credentials. I can confirm that I was able to log in successfully. I am spending more time on this and I will get back to you as soon as I have more feedback. I will leave the ticket assigned to myself for the moment. PS: Just note that there's a weekend ahead and I don't work on the weekends so I will be able to get back to you at the beginning of next week. Hope that's ok. Kind regards, Mihai
April 2, 2024 at 9:56 pm #15475249
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Hi there and thank you for your amazing patience. I wanted to let you know that I did not forget about you and that I am still investigating on this issue. I have never seen this theme until now and I am trying to figure out why things act like this even if the content looks like translated here: hidden link So I am leaving the ticket assigned to myself and I will get back to you as soon as I have an update.
April 7, 2024 at 10:52 pm #15492155
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Hi there. This issue might be compatibility-related. To further debug the problem I’d like to replicate your site locally. I will need your written approval to be able to duplicate your site using a plugin called "Duplicator" and test your site on a testing environment so can you please let me know if this is ok with you? After we find a solution for this, the duplicated site will be deleted. Also, please create a full website backup before answering. Advanced debugging is required and it is not recommended to do this on the live site as it will affect the visitors' experience. I will be waiting for your response. Mihai
April 9, 2024 at 1:32 am #15496394
isabelM-8	Yes, you have our authorization to duplicate and investigate further, we have made a duplicate on our end.
April 9, 2024 at 9:10 pm #15501740
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for the approval. I will continue the debugging process and I will let you know as soon as I have updates. I'm leaving the ticket assigned to myself for now.
April 15, 2024 at 1:15 pm #15520232
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Hi there. Can you please: 1. Create a full website backup 2. Go here (hidden link) and update everything to the latest version 3. After that, the WP memory limit needs to be increased as the minimum requirement for WPML is 128Mb WP Memory Limit: https://wpml.org/home/minimum-requirements/ ❌ Very important: please make a backup of your site (files & database) before following any of the upcoming steps ❌ Please add this to your wp-config.php file to increase WP memory: /* WP Memory Limit / define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M'); define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' ); Paste it just before: / That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. / These settings can be limited directly by your hosting provider, so, if that’s the case, I recommend you contact and ask them to modify them directly. If you can get even higher values It would be great.  After they are modified, you can verify them from WPML >> Support page, just to make sure that they are correct. 4. Also, please increase MaxInputVars* to 50000 or more (you have them set at 3000 at the moment). For this, please try to set these variables in your php.ini: max_input_vars = 50000; suhosin.post.max_vars = 50000; suhosin.request.max_vars = 50000; You may need to contact your hosting provider to set them up. Please make sure you have updated the values successfully, You can verify them from WPML >> Support page. Can you please let me know when all this is ready? Thank you so much for your cooperation in this debugging procedure! Mihai
April 17, 2024 at 12:13 pm #15531950
isabelM-8	My apologies, I thought I replied to you, I have made all the changes requested for you to proceed
April 17, 2024 at 10:42 pm #15535077
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for the confirmation! I will continue with the debugging.
April 22, 2024 at 1:28 pm #15550767
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Quick update: just so you know, I installed the "File manager" plugin in order to be able to check the info added to the wp-config.php file - it seems that the memory line that I mentioned in my reply here (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/wpml-language-switcher-is-not-working/#post-15520232) at point 3 was not added to the wp-config.php file. The max input vars is the only one that got increased. So, that is why the limit was still showing in red as you see in my screenshot. The line that should be added to the wp-config.php file is this: /* WP Memory Limit / define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M'); define( 'WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' ); I tried to edit it with the file manager plugin but it seems I am not allowed - this server seems to have some extra rules/limitations that are not allowing me to make a simple code edit. Probably the server resources limit is being reached. So I removed the "file manager" plugin after testing this. I tried for example multiple times to run a Duplicator backup - there is no chance. Whenever I go to this page (hidden link) and I try to create a package, it fails. It either fails from the very beginning and I don't even get to start the backup, or when it starts the package creation, it fails during the process, so that is probably related to the server resources limited being reached. This might be also the reason for the translation issue. 1/ Can you please add that to the wp-config.php file just before the "/ That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */" line, or can you share FTP/SFTP access? I'm activating the private fields below, too, in case you want to share SFTP/FTP access. 2. Also, if you can put a full website backup of this site (files+database) into a dropbox or google drive folder or a file-sharing service, where I can download that, it would be great. Thanks!
April 22, 2024 at 1:59 pm #15551065
isabelM-8	I have increased the limit to 256 now
April 22, 2024 at 2:24 pm #15551290
Mihai Apetrei WPML Supporter since 03/2018 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Bucharest (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for the quick response! Can you also please answer on point 2? That would be amazingly helpful. Thank you!
April 30, 2024 at 12:21 am #15578953
isabelM-8	I'm getting the backup files and database, sending it shortly
April 30, 2024 at 8:04 pm #15582649
isabelM-8	Hi Mihai; I have spoken with management and they have decided to not continue using WPML services for translation purposes, given the nature that seems the issue is an incompatibility between the theme and WPML they would like to know how to request a refund of the money invested with the credits that got purchased and the annual payment, not sure if this is something you can assist with or if this should be handled through a different channel.