I have discussed with the client the current ways we could redo the bulk update and we are leaning towards deleting our current translations to force a new translation for the slugs. I pasted your advice below again:
You can delete the current translation after switching to "Auto-generate from title (default)". Then, resend the content to translate automatically again. Because of the translation memory feature, you should only be charged for the new strings (slug) translations and nothing for the old content.
Before I do so I wanted to clarify the above is correct that only credits for the slug will be used. I read the page about the translation memory and it does specify that it does so with the Advanced translation editor so I want to add that the content team does use the classic editor at times so would this affect the translation memory and credits to be used?
WPML only charges credits for segments it cannot match in its Translation Memory (TM). When you delete a translation and resend it through the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE), every sentence that already exists in TM is reused at no cost—so only the new slug strings will be billed. Unless something changed in the original content. Edited content will also be translated and charged.
However, content that was originally translated in the Classic Translation Editor (CTE) was never saved to TM, so those pages would be re-translated in full and consume new credits.
I suggest:
- For pages translated with ATE: test with a couple of pages before to verify all works as expected.
- For pages translated with the CTE: probably the best in this case is to translate the slug manually to avoid excessive costs.
And of course, before all:
❌ Please make a full website backup before proceeding ❌
Thanks for the quick reply. All these workarounds are not the ideal solution. And having to manually change the slugs for those that used the CTE is time consuming on our end.
Considering the bulk edit option is a bug and not working as expected is it possible to get translation credits so we can at least use the workaround and get things automatically done?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
My apologies, what I was saying was not 100% correct or maybe sounded confusing:
"You can delete the current translation after switching to "Auto-generate from title (default)". Then, resend the content to translate automatically again. Because of the translation memory feature, you should only be charged for the new strings (slug) translations and nothing for the old content."
Let me point out, that this assumption is not fully correct.
If you switch to "Auto-generate from the title (default)" the slug should be excluded from the Advanced Translation Editor after you update the original content.
If you resend the content again to translation, it should not translate the slug and instead auto-generate it based on the translated title.
You should not get charged at this point for translating the slug but you will get charged for any further segments that might have been changed on the original content in between.
If you would be able to provide admin access to the site I will be glad to give this a test for you. Let me know if this will be possible.
I can not recommend deleting the translation or resetting the translation memory, as this will lead to new costs.
Hello, I thought I'd provide an update. We did end up deleting all the Spanish translations and re-generating them. This worked for us and it didn't use that much translation credits at all so the translation memory was working.
Before we close this, is there a timeline as to when the bulk translate bug may be fixed? In case we ever do need to do one?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Hi,
So far, the issue has been escalated to the development but I can not yet give any information about how far this feature will change and when.
By now, most WPML options that impact title, content, or custom fields will usually take effect for untranslated content. Which means, if you have existing content that has already been translated, the translation status is "Completed" and WPML will not expect that the translation needs to be updated.
In such a case, usually you update the original content, like in your case, for example, the title or the post or page, then save the original content, and WPML will change the translation status to "Update needed".
If "Translate Everything Automatically" is enabled, it will then create a new job, run and complete the translation, but this can only happen after the original content, or in this case, the title or slug, was updated.
I will try to keep an eye on the escalated issue and keep you updated once our developers provide more feedback.
