Skip Navigation

Resolved

Reported for: WPML Multilingual CMS 4.4.8

Resolved in: 4.5.6

Overview of the issue

You might have problem visualizing the contents of a Visual tab in the Classic Translation Editor.

This was introduced by the WordPress 5.6 and it will be fixed in WordPress core:
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53644

Workaround

Don’t hesitate to make a full backup of your site before proceeding.

We have currently 5 possible workarounds:

  1. You can use Advanced Translation Editor.
  2. Alternatively, you can also install the Enable jQuery Migrate Helper plugin.
  3. You can click the Text tab and then return back to Visual tab in the Classic Translation Editor interface.
  4. You can also:
    • Edit your  wp-config.php file.
    • Just after line:
      define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );
    • Add this:
      define('CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS', false);
  5. Finally, you can add the following snippet in your functions.php theme file.
    add_filter( 'wp_default_editor', create_function( '', 'return "html";' ) );
    

41 Responses to “Visual Tab in Classic Translation Editor is not showing contents after update to WordPress 5.6”

  1. Going back and forth from Text to Visual does not work. For anyone having this issue, there is an easy short term fix until the developers get the upcoming release out. You simply need to install and activate Enable jQuery Migrate Helper plugin. This solves the problem by reverting to a depricated JQuery Migrate for plugins like WPML that are not written for the updated version that came with the WP 5.6 update. Bests!

    • Hello there,

      Thank you for sharing this workaround, however it may be caused by an issue from a previous WordPress update.
      We are working on it.

      Thank you for your understanding.
      Regards,
      Andrés

  2. Hello,

    I’ve installed and activated the Enable jQuery Migrate Helper Plugin on my site. And I checked again the page to translate my homepage, I still don’t see the fields to translate medias. Do I have to modify something else ?

    Regards, Jeremy

    • Hello Jeremy, what was the issue?
      I’m going to install the plugin now.
      It’s weird because it doesn’t happen in every page or product, the visual tab sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t…

  3. Thank you very much, you have solved the problem momentarily, I hope they will correct it in the next update

    Thank you very much great job.

  4. El error sigue estando y la versión de WordPress es 5.8, el tema es que avece carga y otras no. La verdad me parece que es una incompatibilidad de wpml con wordpress en si. Cuando estarían arreglando el problema.

    • Hola,
      De momento la errata sigue estando abierta, tan pronto tengamos novedades de nuestros desarrolladores avisaremos aquí y la maracaremos como resuelta.
      Gracias por tu comprensión.

    • We totally understand you but there is a limitation from WordPress Core. I recommend you to try our Advanced Translation Editor which not only solves this issue but also is more powerful and bring you a lot of tools for translating your site smoothly.

  5. Just wondering about the status of all of this.

    I am refitting an existing WPML WooCommerce shop with a new theme, and today, I tested out each of the four workarounds on both pages and products.

    The results:
    – workaround 1: messed up the entire existing translation.
    – workaround 2: works, but only after one or two page refreshes.
    – workaround 3: does not work. No matter how many times I click back and forth between visual and text, the visual option does not display the content.
    – workaround 4: this is a deprecated PHP function, and it causes three errors because the headers are already sent within WP standard files.

    The best workaround at the moment is to just open the page translation using the flag at the top bar, thus showing the entire page.

    This mess I cannot explain to my clients.

    If you read the page to which you’re referring regarding the WP bug, they consider it resolved. Doesn’t it have to do with the fact that WPML has not updated their plugins to the new version of jQuery WP is also using?

    Is there an update to this? When can we expect WPML to update jQuery?

    • Thank you for your report, Boris.
      If any of the workarounds here displayed works for you, please open a ticket in our support forum as it may be an edge case. In that way we will be able to help you better.
      Regards

  6. So apparently this is still an issue, at least on my site. Will this be resolved as beginning to use Advanced Translator on existing site is not a feasible suggestion for moving forward.

    • I understand the confusion. The first workaround is to attempt any of the solutions here presented. However, if they don’t work in your website, we need to investigate further.

    • Hello there,
      This issue is not longer reproducible in a clean installation. Instead, it involves a wide range of themes and plugins, that’s whey we have recently updated this errata with a new workaround (4) attempting to cover more scenarios.
      We will keep this page updated as soon as we have more news.
      Regards

  7. If it can be helpful.
    I’m having this problem as well and noticed that the problem occurs on litespeed servers. Basically if I take the same site and install it on a server without litespeed the problem doesn’t occur and the visual editor loads correctly.

    • Thank you for sharing your findings. Indeed, it seems there are some conditions regarding hostings or other third parties which creates the issue with WPML.
      Anyway, this should be fixed soon. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to use workaround number 4 which has helped recently many other users.
      Regards

  8. Hello,

    I am using this workaround:

    add_filter( ‘wp_default_editor’, create_function( ”, ‘return “html”;’ ) );

    It seems to work but Query Monitor says: Function create_function() is deprecated

    Could you please help to modify the function.

    Sincerely,

    • Hello there,
      If you are having issues with that workaround, I would recommend you to try the number 4 which cover more scenarios and it is cleaner to implement.
      I hope it helps.

  9. Any updates? When will it be fixed?

    I tried the recommended workarounds, but unfortunately they still create some issues.

    • Hello there,
      If any of the workarounds works for you, please open a ticket in our support forum as we would need to investigate your case. Please when you do it, specify that any of the five solutions worked for you.
      Regards

  10. Hi

    This is really an annoying issue. Non of my clients can cope with WP block editor and WPML Advanced Translation Editor. I have to develop all sites with classic editor and Classic Translation Editor.

    But WPML Classic Translation Editor still does not work without the installation jQuery Migrate Helper which solves the issue of empty visual tab. But this is not a permanent solution.

    Any idea when and how this will be solved for good? Or why it has not been solved for nearly 2 years now?

    Thank you for your help.

    Best regards

    • Hey Nicolas,
      I totally understand your situation, most of the causes of this issue has been already addressed by our team, however there are still some scenarios for which this erratum is needed. Please keep in mind that it not only depends on our devs but also in WordPress itself.
      Haven’t you considered to open a ticket in our support forum so we can investigate why you can’t use our Advanced Translation Editor? Anyway, don’t hesitate to try the 4th workaround as it may adjust to your project requirements.
      Regards

  11. I got this issue in the WooCommerce Multilingual & Multic-Currency product translation with WP Standard Theme 2021 and the following plugins:

    WooCommerce, WooCommerce Multilingual & Multic-Currency, WPML Media, WPML Multingual CMS, WPML String Translation
    But only in Firefox. When I edit the product in chrome, the text ist visible.

    define(‘CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS’, false); did nothing
    add_filter( ‘wp_default_editor’, create_function( ”, ‘return “html”;’ ) ); always shows the HTML-Editor which is not acceptable for non-developers

    I did not test jQuery Migrate Helper but this should be no real options years after wordpress 5.6

    • We understand your situation Wolfgang, however our recommendation is to move to our Advanced Translation Editor which is our most powerful and advanced tool to translate websites.
      If that does not help, please open a ticket in our support forum to help you better.

  12. snippet for functions.php did not work but, thanks to it, I found in WP documentation code that works for me.

    apply_filters( ‘wp_default_editor’, create_function( ”, ‘return “html”;’ ) );

    • Thank you for sharing, Barbora. That’s interesting, it could be that a third party is also adding a filter to the `wp_default_editor` hook which could have some side effect.
      Anyway, we are happy that it is working for you.

  13. Hello everyone.

    I´ve been experimenting this problem for years now and never ran into a proper solution.
    Blaming WP is not the way dear support team! It´s your plugin the one that should adapt to WP and not viceversa…

    I think you are making the Classic translation Editor obsolete without a proper transition system to the Advanced Editor and it´s clear that it´s creating lots of trouble to us, the customers that trusted you would be offering a stable system in the long term.

    Even though I do not like the Advanced translation editor (it breaks years of pages created with custom and inline html that gets broken) I´ve tried to transition to it but it broke the older translations every time I tryed to activate it.

    When we are working on the websites it´s usually urgent so I´ve been coping with the “fixes” and uncountable clicks and workarounds to be able to finish my work updating the translations. (Also, asking my customer to follow the ridiculous protocol of switching tabs, refreshing the page, canceling, coming back, etc etc!)

    I have to say guys, you are not dealing with this well (me neither) and I hope you find a better way to solve this situation.

    Thanks for reading

    • Hey there,
      I totally understand your position, however this situation arises under different scenarios even if it should be handled already.
      If any of the workarounds here presented does not fit your project, please open a ticket in our support forum and one of our specialists will work in your case.
      Thank you for your understanding.

      • Hello Andres

        It´s nice to feel understood, though I´d feel better if these bugs were fixed.
        I´m now looking forward to the support´s reply, which takes daaaaaays, or weeeeeeks.

        Thanks