Background of the issue:
We are trying to remove the WPML plugin to try a different one. When we deactivate it, the menus in the footer break or disappear. I restored an old backup into our staging environment (hidden link) and the menus work there with active plugins.
We were using "WPML Multilingual CMS" and "WPML String Translation". Site uses Elementor Pro and Astra Pro.
In the attached images, one shows how it should display (5 menus) and the other shows it broken (2 menus, copyright outside of footer).
Symptoms:
Deactivating the WPML plugin breaks or causes the menus in the footer to disappear. The "copyright" also appears outside of the footer now too.
Questions:
Why does deactivating the WPML plugin break the menus in the footer?
How can we safely remove the WPML plugin without breaking the footer menus?
Please go to Plugins->deactivate the WPML plugins.
Then head to Appearance->Menus and review your menus.
As well as Appearance->Widgets.
The problem is that when you are deactivating WPML any menus, pages,posts, widgets, etc that were previously connected will now all be under the default language of the site so you might need to delete them manually.
Another option is to completely remove WPML by RESET, to do this go to WPML->Support->Troubleshooting->RESET WPML.
IMPORTANT: RESET will fully remove WPML along with all translations from the site and it is not reversible.
If you are doing this to test another plugin and compare between the 2 I suggest you create a staging site and to test this there or to at minimum have a working backup so you can go back in time if you decide to continue working with WPML.
Thanks for the repply. I am unable to do that on the production since since the plugin is already deactivated. Is there a way to do it on the staging site and then export the menu data from the DB and dump it on PROD? I can spin up a copy of the dev site to test. I'm just hoping that htere is a way to do that.
Just as another update, on the staging site, when I ran the RESET the menus broke again. I have also tried to create a new menu and assign that to the widget spot where the footer is and it isn't showing up either. Any other ideas?
I have to admit, this is quite strange, WPML it self typically does not affect styling as this is all handled by the theme, theme options and it's CSS.
Is there possibly something in the theme that was relying on WPML?
Perhaps any custom code? I can see this is a child theme based on Astra
What about when reviewing the footer's settings does anything change?
Do you currently have a staging site with WPML intact and the footer showing OK? I'd like to review it if possible.
If yes, do not share the access details until I have shared a private reply form please as this is a public forum.
I inherited this site from a previous developer at the company, so I'm not super well versed, yet, in how it was designed.
It is using Astra Pro with a child theme, but I didn't seen anything in the theme file templates or child css for the child footer or parent footer that would tip me off.
So there is one more update -- when I reactivated the plugin on the prod page, the footer works. I don't believe this was the case before, but I've updated all of the plugins and that seems to work. However, when the plugin is deactivated, the menus break again. The footer settings in the widget page doesn't appear to change at all when the plugin is active/deactivated.
I am just restoring the current production backup into the staging environment for investigation. Would you be able to take a look at that and let me know if anything pops out? How can I securely send you an access link?
I am currently having trouble with the server protection details, if possible please verify that they are still working OK as it keeps reloading but not accepting them
