Automatic translation assigns wrong language and/or no parent

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

Problem:
The client is experiencing issues with WPML's bulk auto translate feature, where translations are assigned the wrong language and lack a parent, leading to disorganized translations.
Solution:
We recommend taking the following steps to diagnose and potentially resolve the issue:
1) Ensure to back up your site and database. It's advisable to perform these steps on a development or staging site first.
2) Enable debugging on your site. For details, see https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-wpml/
3) Deactivate all plugins except for WPML and String Translation.
4) Switch to a standard theme, such as Twenty Twenty-Four or Twenty Twenty-One.
5) Check if the issue persists. If it does not, reactivate plugins one by one to identify any conflicts.
6) If the issue remains resolved after all plugins are reactivated, switch back to your original theme to check if the theme is causing the problem.

If these steps do not resolve the issue or if the problem recurs, it may be necessary to further investigate the root cause. Deleting translations and re-running the bulk translate might be a temporary workaround but is not generally recommended without understanding the underlying issue.

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. Should you need further assistance, please feel free to open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

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Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 3 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Waqas Bin Hasan 1 week, 5 days ago.

Assisted by: Waqas Bin Hasan.

Author	Posts
August 18, 2025 at 7:58 am #17326506
thiloH	Background of the issue: I am trying to use bulk auto translate with WPML. When running it, the translated pages are created, but they often have the wrong language assigned and no parent. You can see the issue on this page: hidden link Symptoms: Translations are assigned the wrong language and no parent, resulting in messy translations. Questions: Why are translations being assigned the wrong language? Why are translations not being assigned a parent?
August 18, 2025 at 11:57 am #17327618
Waqas Bin Hasan WPML Supporter since 05/2014 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)	Hi, Thank you for contacting the support. Apparently this shouldn't happen unless there's something breaking the process (i.e. a conflict). Before proceeding further, can you please try the following? Take a full backup of your site and database before proceeding. It is highly advised to try these on a dev or staging site first, so your live site isn't compromised. 1) Enable debugging in your site? See https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-wpml/ for details. 2) Deactivate all plugins except WPML and String Translation. 3) Switch to a standard theme like 2024 or 2021. 4) Check for the issue if it still happens. 5) Then start activating plugins one by one while keep checking for the issue. This way you 'll be able to pinpoint a conflict when & where it starts creating the problem. 6) If after activating all plugins you see that it still works fine, then switch to your theme and see if that's causing it. Please let me know your findings and I'll try my best to help you further on the matter. Regards.
August 19, 2025 at 8:28 am #17330209
thiloH	Thanks, I managed to fix the issue. Is there an easy way to fix the translations so they now get the right language and parent assigned? Or would I need to delete all translations and run the bulk translate again?
August 19, 2025 at 1:26 pm #17331554
Waqas Bin Hasan WPML Supporter since 05/2014 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)	Thank you for the updates and glad that it worked out for you. To answer your question correctly, we'll need to identify the cause of the issue. Since at this point I'm not sure why that happened in first place, unfortunately I can't recommend anything clearly. Did you check by the steps I mentioned in my previous message and did you find any reason or conflict? On the other hand, deleting translations is a workaround in some cases, but shouldn't be required all the time. Again, to provide a proper fix or solution, it is important to understand the actual cause of the problem. Please feel free to let me know your findings.