Skip to content Skip to sidebar

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

Problem:
The client experienced issues with WPML's automatic translation service where terms like 'chrome' and 'black' were mistranslated despite having glossary entries set up. Additionally, products manually translated were marked as 'needs update' after edits or bulk actions, and significant credits were deducted during bulk automatic translation of already translated content without explicit confirmation.

Solution:
1. We confirmed that the glossary entries for 'black-nero' and 'chrome-cromo' were correctly set up before the translation. However, due to the translation engine or WPML's translation memory handling, these terms were still mistranslated.
2. To address the mistranslations, we recommended switching to the PTC engine and making minor edits to the product details to force WPML to bypass the old translation memory. This involves:
- Opening the affected product in the default language.
- Making a minor edit and updating the product.
- Resending the product for translation via WPML's Translation Dashboard.
3. To resolve the 'needs update' status, we advised:
- Going to Products -> All Products.
- Clicking the circular-arrow icon in the language column for the affected product.
- Reviewing and saving the translation to mark it as complete.
4. For the issue of unexpected credit deduction, we refunded the mistakenly deducted credits and provided guidelines to prevent future occurrences by avoiding bulk automatic translations for products with potential untranslated or modified text.

Please note that this solution might be outdated or not applicable to your specific case. If these steps do not resolve your issue, 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 problem persists, please open a new support ticket here.

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: ,

This topic contains 1 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Carlos Rojas 1 month, 2 weeks ago.

Assisted by: Carlos Rojas.

Author Posts
June 26, 2026 at 4:11 pm #18128596

noraJ-2

I bought credits to try the automatic Translation. After it chrome was translated as nero, or Black was translated as cromo. I have around 6000 products, I was translating all myself, and after Half was done I decided to try automatic. Also a lot of products are under needs update, that I have already did the translations.

June 29, 2026 at 7:02 am #18130533

Carlos Rojas
WPML Supporter since 03/2017

Languages: English (English ) Spanish (EspaƱol )

Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+02:00)

Hello,
My name is Carlos, and I will continue working on this ticket.

I have refunded the 6,320 translation credits to your account, and they should now be available on your site.

Going forward, please keep in mind what you learned while chatting with our AI assistant: if a product that has already been translated manually is sent for **Automatic Translation**, the existing manual translation will be overwritten, and new translation credits will be consumed.

If you have any questions about when Automatic Translation is triggered or how to avoid unnecessary credit usage, I'll be happy to help.

Best regards,

Carlos