Problem: You are trying to translate the footer content of the Astra theme using WPML, specifically the HTML blocks defined in the Astra Footer Builder (e.g., footer-html-3, footer-html-7, and similar). These strings appear in WPML’s Admin Texts Translation interface but are 'Registered and locked' and cannot be added to the String Translation section, showing the message: 'This setting is locked by a WPML configuration file.' Despite attempts to override this behavior through the Custom XML Configuration section in WPML Settings, adding custom definitions to enable translation for these keys, using a child theme with a custom wpml-config.xml file, forcing a theme scan for new strings, and clearing WPML caches, the strings remain locked.
Solution: The issue was due to a database corruption, possibly during a migration. Some strings in the icl_strings table had the columns string_package_id and location set to 0 instead of NULL. Changing these values to NULL made the strings translatable in the String Translation section.
If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. If the issue persists, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
