Auto translate seemingly stuck for one page

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

Problem:
The client was experiencing issues with WPML's PTC auto translation for a specific page on their website. The auto translation process was stuck, and manual translation attempts were also failing. The translation status icon would rotate for a long time and then change to a gear icon, indicating 'waiting for the first available partner'.

Solution:
We investigated the issue and found that it was not related to PTC. After testing the page on a sandbox environment and on the client's site with different settings, the translation worked correctly. It appears the problem might have been caused by server or connection issues, or a temporary issue on our external server where the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) runs. We also advised the client to check the WPML settings for generating slugs from page titles and to remove any duplicated pages to adjust the slug correctly.

If you're experiencing similar issues, we recommend checking your server and connection settings, ensuring there are no duplicated pages, and verifying your WPML slug settings under WPML > Languages > Options for translated documents > Page URL > Automatically generate from title (default). If the problem persists, it might be a temporary issue on our end, and we recommend contacting us for further assistance.

Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. 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 these steps do not resolve the issue, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

Tagged: ATE, Exception

This topic contains 18 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Andreas W. 6 months, 1 week ago.

Assisted by: Andreas W..

Author	Posts
October 16, 2025 at 11:15 am #17489955
arnoB-2	I am a bit confused here to see your copy of the page apparently went without a problem. Did you change anything content-wise? I tried changing the title and url and had the translation update through PTC, then made another change. And that seems to go through also. So it seems to work now. In that case this would seem to be the version to keep working with. However the url is not updated for both English and German, see: hidden link and switch the languages. It still show the term copy in the name whereas this is not there any more for the Dutch version. Not sure how to fix that.
October 16, 2025 at 5:05 pm #17491878
Andreas W. WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)	Thank you for your message! No, I hadn't changed anything else here, and I still suspect that the problem was caused by the server (or connection issues). Regarding the URL: The website is currently set to generate slugs from the page titles. (WordPress default) See WPML > Languages > Options for translated documents > Page URL > Automatically generate from title (default). I don't see any unexpected behavior in the near future. The "-2" slug is applied by WordPress if the same slug for this post type already exists on the website. The page "Wägeverstärker aus eigener Produktion" currently exists four times in German. Remove the duplicated pages, and you should be able to adjust the slug.
October 23, 2025 at 5:15 am #17510574
arnoB-2	Just letting you know that on the last couple of tests things seem to work properly for this page. Server or connection related still seems illogical though, seeing as all the other pages would translate without any problem at any given time and the problem only was with the translations of this particular page... I've removed the duplicated versions of the translations too, now there is only 1 version in each language.
October 23, 2025 at 7:13 am #17511027
Andreas W. WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) German (Deutsch ) Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)	I am glad to hear that the issue appears to be solved! Note that the Advanced Translation Editor runs on an external server, which means the issue might also have been a temporary issue on our end. Further, our ATE-Team constantly pushes ATE updates on this external server to fix issues inside ATE, which could also be a reason why the site now works as expected. In case you will again run into a similar issue again, please let us know so that we can investigate further.