[Resolved] Multiple copies of images after WPML removal

There is nothing that can be done to remove what appears to be extra references to the images, without flashing our entire 10 year old library? I don't accept that. Elon Musk is shooting internet satellites into orbit on an almost daily basis, then you should also see the scripts that SiteGround wrote to migrate 3 million websites from cPanel to their own proprietary server software, with next to no downtime.

So how about WPML write a little script to fix the problem it caused?

That you have specific documentation when it comes to de-activating and removing WPML has never been clear. By the time a user realises what has happened, it's now too late, and we have to just sit with what appears to be 4-8 copies of an image? Or, rebuild the entire media library from scratch, and then re-attach all images to hundreds of posts? and possibly lose seo image rankings?

This problem has happened to countless others, and every time WPML support just shrugs and says sorry?

So where does it say that you will now sit with what appears to be multiple copies of all images if you remove WPML the wrong way? If we write new posts and want to attach existing images, which one do we use?

But ok, a licensed copy of WPML is now back on the site in question, along with all database tables, and it can stay, although we are not sure we will translate this site any time soon, if at all. I did this to see if it would fix the image problem. It has not. Are there perhaps settings I can run within WPML to fix this issue?

This is a common problem that has been caused by WPML, without fair warning. I think many people would appreciate a fix, or much more clarity and warnings on the risks if WPML is not removed correctly, and the irreversible damage it WILL cause if instructions are not followed to the letter.

When removing Yoast they say to first just deactivate and delete the plugin, then they list the tables in the database that one has to delete by hand. This doesn't take long. People like me then somehow think all other plugins can be removed this way.

Oh, I tried a few cleaner plugins. They don't work, because it's not actually copies, but instead multiple references created by WPML to the same image, references that the WordPress media library now 'sees' after WPML is gone. No matter which 'copy' is deleted, it disappears completely from the post where it was displayed. I know this, because looking in the actual files I only see 1 copy of each size created by WordPress on image upload.

Maybe the SiteGround analogy wasn't the best. What I meant to suggest is they wrote what I imagined were some very complicated scripts to migrate a massively wide variety of sites from one very different software platform to another, to save them having to move 3 million websites one by one, and this is including any customisations that the site owners might have implemented in their respective sites and databases. And before that, also using scripts, they moved from various hosting providers to Google Cloud Platform. Of course, they had backups, on both counts. I do too, but not going back far enough. I have not been into this site's media library since I removed WPML. Had I done so, I would have noticed sooner and could have rolled back and done it properly, unless it was a bug with the version of WPML in use at the time.

So again, what I am asking is if the coders of WPML, who wrote what seems to be the most complicated and advanced translation plugin in the universe could come up with something quick to fix this problem, which is actually kind of small, but still highly annoying. And unless you can prove I was duly warned and deliberately ignored it, I think it's only fair for you (WPML) to help in some way. I and everyone else pay you good money, every year. I'm sure you'd like to keep your customers.

No, I didn't delete anything from within the tables, I just dropped the complete list of icl tables after I deleted the 4 WPML plugins. That's it. I believe that is what the plugin itself does anyway. But in my case nothing had been translated, so I didn't think there was any need to delete anything else, as there wasn't anything else to delete.

But in my case now I haven't actually lost anything. I still have all the images, and they are showing once in the posts as always, it's just when you go into the media library there appear to now be 4 copies of each one. This makes managing the library a royal pain. It's also creating havoc when I try create webp images. The webp plugin tries to create webp copies of nearly 6000 images, and not the 1200 we actually have.

So I'll ask one more time, is there no way to simply collate these extra database records created by WPML to tell the WordPress media library there is in fact only one copy of each image?

This guy came up with a script, and it worked in that case, but it doesn't seem to work in my case, nothing at all happens when I run it:

https://wpml.org/forums/topic/stopped-using-wpml-now-the-media-library-has-duplicate-images/

I could still be wrong, about some of this. At the end of the day the only fix for this situation is a complete re-build of the media library. I just wish I'd been told that sooner. Exactly what caused this is still unclear. What is clear to me though is WPML was involved.

Siteground now have an in-house premium support service, for non-hosting related issues. It was them who I finally contacted. A few of their senior service reps who already have unfettered root access to all SG hosted sites got involved in this case. They tried all sorts of CLI commands and SQL queries, and even they couldn't guarantee a fix, which is what I'm looking for.

So, I have decided the only way to properly fix this media library is from scratch. The end product will then be guaranteed. It's just going to take a bit more time, but still less time than trying to fix this any other way. This site might now actually pass Core Web Vitals after this re-build.

I first emptied the media library database with one query, then deleted all the image files from the Uploads folder. Yes, we are doing this all in staging with the live as a reference as to what should be in each post.

Admittedly, this is the first site we ever built where we made a lot of rookie mistakes; images with the same title/file name as pages and posts, 2MB images, many without alt text, using cheap, sub-par hosts and poorly coded compression plugins that timed out and crashed the site after having done weird things to existing images, etc etc etc.

So, it would seem this has been a long time coming, a culmination of events that ultimately lead to a corrupted media library, and unfortunately WPML was somehow involved, hence this ticket.

I do appreciate the offer of help. But if I may be so bold, telling a customer they are now asking for help outside the scope of your support and that they need to find help elsewhere actually isn't a bad thing. It may well save us all some time. Siteground are pretty clear about that, hence their new premium support service. And even then, things still get broken beyond repair, where being helped to realise this sooner rather than later is a good thing.

We sent our car in for general service recently. There was also something wrong with the brakes. They tried fixing them with some computer adjustments, but soon told us we need a new ABS pump and front discs and pads. So we said just do that, despite the price. The alternative was to keep fiddling, or to keep driving around with bad brakes which might then lock up on the Autobahn at 160Kph.

In the case of the site in question, it is just going to cost us some more time, but the end is now in sight, after some good lessons learnt.

I have a few live hobby sites I often use for testing. I installed and removed a licensed copy of WPML, a few times. I cannot re-create this problem. So, I'm just going to chalk this up to yet another glitch in The Matrix.

All is now good.