The initial activation of the plugin worked great on my site. Now, as I'm working on translating posts, the WPML plugin is returning 500 errors on the site. I've increased PHP memory limits and other things, so these are not the issue. It is almost like posts get hung up in the translation/communication and are not processing.
To ensure the quickest and most accurate support, please provide your debug information so I can look at some of your configurations. We have an excellent article on how to locate it here: https://wpml.org/faq/provide-debug-information-faster-support/.
Please do the following:
1. Get more information about the problem
Please follow the instructions mentioned on this page: https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-wpml/
Then, try to reproduce the issue and check your installation's **wp-content** folder to see if a file named **"debug.log"** was created (it will only be generated if a server error occurs).
If the file was created, please upload it to a platform like **Google Drive** or **Dropbox** (whichever you usually use) and share the link with me (make sure it is publicly accessible) so I can analyze it.
2. Minimal setup test to isolate/discard compatibility issues
I suggest you try this to help us identify if it might be a conflict with another plugin or theme that is causing the problem.
**IMPORTANT:** Please try this in a staging environment or at least with a backup of your site files and database before continuing.
Disable all plugins except WPML-related and temporarily change the theme to a default WordPress such as Twenty Twenty-five.
Is the issue resolved with these settings? If so, please reactivate one by one to see which conflicts.
Here is the debug information. I have gone through deactivation of other plugins, the only cause of the issue is the WPML plugin. It happens when I attempt to convert any post to a different language. It seems to get hung into the queue and will not process, causing a 500 error to happen.
Can you provide me with the debug.log file? It will point us to the root cause of the problem.
Please follow the instructions mentioned on this page: https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-wpml/
Then, try to reproduce the issue and check your installation's **wp-content** folder to see if a file named **"debug.log"** was created (it will only be generated if a server error occurs).
If the file was created, please upload it to a platform like **Google Drive** or **Dropbox** (whichever you usually use) and share the link with me (make sure it is publicly accessible) so I can analyze it.
[03-Mar-2026 20:20:50 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 180 seconds exceeded in /home/anotherwellorg/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/classes/utilities/class-debug-backtrace.php on line 66
[03-Mar-2026 20:21:52 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 180 seconds exceeded in /home/anotherwellorg/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/classes/utilities/class-debug-backtrace.php on line 68
[03-Mar-2026 20:22:08 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 180 seconds exceeded in /home/anotherwellorg/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/classes/query-filtering/wpml-query-filter.class.php on line 102
[03-Mar-2026 20:23:27 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 180 seconds exceeded in /home/anotherwellorg/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sitepress-multilingual-cms/classes/utilities/class-debug-backtrace.php on line 137
If it did not, I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site to test the issue.
(preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible)
**Before we proceed It is necessary to take FULL BACKUP of your database and your website. Providing us with access, you agree that a backup has been taken **
I often use the Duplicator plugin for this purpose: http://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
You will find the needed fields for this below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply.
The information you enter is private which means only you and I have access to it.
NOTE: If access to the live site is not possible and the staging site does not exist please provide me with a duplicator package created with the duplicator plugin.
I will be running some more tests to see if this solved the problem today. As of right now, it does not appear that it has. I attempted to convert two more recent posts last night, but they seem to be stuck in the translation queue again and are not converting. When I go to translation jobs tab, nothing comes up. On the translation dashboard, they show as in progress. The 500 error occurs when this happens, and another automatic task occurs on the site, such as WPematico running to pull in a new post from my Substack.
Every translation attempt creates jobs in icl_translate with content_id = 0, meaning the job never links to the actual post and translation never completes. This affects all posts regardless of length or content.
All translation attempts fail regardless of method (automatic PTC, DeepL, or manual Translation Editor). Every attempt creates records in icl_translate with content_id = 0, meaning jobs never link to posts. This affects all posts. We have already: cleaned all orphaned records, reset stuck jobs, cleared string table from 1800+ to 650 strings, increased PHP execution time to 900 seconds, confirmed LiteSpeed is not the issue, and fixed NULL source_language_code on translations table.
One final note, when I am finally able to get it to clear these out of the queue, it delivers approximately 30-50 copies of the post that I'm attempting ot translate at once. I'm hopeful that isn't being reflected in used credits on the account.
Please go to your database tables and review the structure.
You can start with wp_icl_translate -> do you see AUTO INCREMENT enabled?
See screenshot attached of the _icl_tranlsate table.
If you are seeing multiple entries with id = '0' that signals that AUTO INCREMENT is not enabled, and most likely missing from other tables as well. (check both WPML + standard WordPress tables)
if that is the case the database is most likely corrupted and will need to be fixed.
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