Homepage header and images missing after enabling “Use directory for default language (/de/)” ...

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

Problem:
After switching the WPML setup to use a directory for the default language (/de/), the homepage content partially disappeared. The header, main navigation menu, and all Elementor images and sections are missing on the German homepage, affecting the SEO as Google now sees /de/ as the canonical homepage.
Solution:
The issue might have occurred due to the site's rewrite base changing when the default language directory was updated, causing some URLs, especially those in Elementor's internal data, to retain the old path. To fix this, you can use the following command if your site runs on WordPress with WP-CLI installed:

wp search-replace 'https:\/\/nextgen-workforce.ch\/de\/wp-content\/uploads\/' 'https:\/\/nextgen-workforce.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/'

If WP-CLI is not available, consider using a plugin like Better Search Replace. Always ensure to back up your site fully before running these commands.

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we recommend opening a new support ticket.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. For further assistance, please visit our support forum at WPML Support Forum.

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Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 43 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by Marcel 3 days, 17 hours ago.

Assisted by: Bruno Kos.

Author	Posts
November 10, 2025 at 3:19 pm #17563196
homeP	Background of the issue: I switched my WPML setup to use a directory for the default language (/de/). Symptoms: After enabling 'Use directory for default language (/de/)', the homepage content partially disappeared. The header and main navigation menu are missing on the German homepage (hidden link). All hero images, sliders, and background images from Elementor sections are missing. The page structure loads, but the layout is broken. The English version (/en/) still works perfectly. From an SEO perspective, Google now sees /de/ as the canonical homepage, but the index quality and preview are impacted. Questions: How can I restore the header and main navigation menu on the German homepage? What steps should I take to ensure all images and templates appear correctly on the German homepage? How can I address the SEO impact caused by the missing elements on the German homepage?
November 10, 2025 at 3:25 pm #17563226
homeP	The URL for the main page was previously in German: hidden link Now it is: hidden link But it should now be: hidden link hidden link The same applies in English. hidden link
November 11, 2025 at 6:57 am #17564736
homeP	Hello hellooooooooooo I'll explain the situation in more detail. After changing the settings so that the language identifier (/de/ /en/) is present in the URL for all languages, the following happened: The homepage in both languages no longer has a header. The header is present on the other pages. hidden link hidden link The other problem is that several images are no longer displayed. hidden link
November 11, 2025 at 7:08 am #17564741
Bruno Kos WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) French (Français ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)	Hi, Can you tell me what did you set for the root page, given that you set directories to be used in the site default language? Maybe this? https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/directory-default-language/#redirect-the-root-domain-to-the-default-language-directory
November 11, 2025 at 7:15 am #17564777
homeP	Hi Bruno hidden link
November 11, 2025 at 7:25 am #17564859
homeP	Hi Bruno, I'm sending you a private request to send you a user login. It doesn't make sense to write it here if you already know the solution.
November 11, 2025 at 7:48 am #17564941
Bruno Kos WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) French (Français ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)	I marked your next reply as private so that you can safely add credentials. I would like to check settings directly to see why this fails to work properly.
November 11, 2025 at 8:59 am #17565234
Bruno Kos WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) French (Français ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)	I see that no root is set and we need to have this setting in place. I suppose you don't want to have an actual root page but to show hidden link once your site is reached? If so, can you set this? https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/directory-default-language/#redirect-the-root-domain-to-the-default-language-directory Let me know once this is in place so I could check further.
November 11, 2025 at 9:19 am #17565427
homeP	Sorry, but what kind of nonsense is this! Do I look like someone who codes in PHP? And the important question is: why do I even have to do this? On the other WordPress website, everything worked perfectly without me having to make any changes. So please explain to me what’s going wrong here! I don’t want to create any more pointless pages just because of SEO. The URLs are being redirected correctly (/de/ and /en/), but the header and images have disappeared from the entire website — not only on the main page, but also on the subpages there are problems with the images. hidden link hidden link hidden link I don’t think the problem is with the root page.
November 11, 2025 at 9:34 am #17565511
homeP	I found the problem. The template settings were set to Full Width Elementor instead of Root. I checked on the other website, and there it’s configured correctly — now everything is visible again. They’re talking nonsense… from a support team, I expect a bit more professionalism and knowledge. The header and the slider are back again. However, there are still problems with the images! I’ve noticed that when I manually re-add the images in Elementor, everything works fine again — but honestly, I have no desire to go through the entire site and re-insert every single image manually. So please explain to me why the images disappeared after the language switch.
November 11, 2025 at 9:57 am #17565581
homeP	hidden link The images are almost all marked like this in the Elementor editor, even though they’re correctly assigned. I have to open each image and close it again — then it becomes visible. Please explain to me why this happened after changing the language URLs. hidden link hidden link It seems like the plugin has a bug!
November 11, 2025 at 10:13 am #17565622
Bruno Kos WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) French (Français ) Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)	Can you provide me with FTP credentials so I could set the root page as per our documentation, to see if this is the cause? Because when I inspect the source code I can see that all images have /de added for some reason (which leads to 404 for images), it could be compatibility or configuration issue. That being said, do you have a staging or testing website perhaps? If so, we could make some additional tests there such as disabling plugins to find a possible source of conflict.
November 11, 2025 at 10:22 am #17565713
homeP	The home page is now working correctly. What else do you want to configure there? From what I can see, the template setting is Elementor Full Width. hidden link I’ve just manually confirmed the images on the homepage. I only have to open each one and confirm it once, then the images are fine again. For FTP access, I would have to completely adjust the firewall so that you can connect. I’ve checked the images. I don’t see any /de/ in the image URLs — the URLs are all still the same: hidden link
November 11, 2025 at 10:28 am #17565724
homeP	hidden link That's what you mean. Yes, that's the error. Actually, it's not an error; it's correct, because the images are translated for each language. The question is why Elementor didn't adopt this; some of the images are correct.
November 11, 2025 at 10:34 am #17565763
homeP	hidden link German image: hidden link englisch image: hidden link What is becoming clear now is why not all images are available on the English version! I think the plugin is not translating the images correctly. The images should be the same in all languages, and the alt text, title, etc., should be translated!