Skip Navigation

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.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
- 9:00 – 14:00 9:00 – 14:00 9:00 – 14:00 9:00 – 14:00 9:00 – 14:00 -
- 15:00 – 18:00 15:00 – 18:00 15:00 – 18:00 15:00 – 18:00 15:00 – 18:00 -

Supporter timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

This topic contains 17 replies, has 2 voices.

Last updated by tomA-13 4 months, 4 weeks ago.

Assisted by: Prosenjit Barman.

Author Posts
September 26, 2023 at 3:34 am #14462847

tomA-13

Hello,

I have a problem with a category slug translation:

I tried to do it with country category

For English all worked, but when it comes to German it does not work.

When switching language from here:
hidden link
I land here: hidden link

instead of here: hidden link

But when you use language switch from here: hidden link
then it will correctly go to this page: hidden link

When checking German post, /laender is already marked as primary: hidden link

So, I have no clue what is going on and why the category is not shown correctly.

Here is the temp login:

[Information removed]

September 27, 2023 at 8:16 am #14471285

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello There,
Thanks for contacting WPML Support.

I understand the issue you're having and will try my best to assist you in this matter.

Due to security reasons, I removed the autologin link from the public response. Please don't share any sensitive information in public response. If we need access or any sensitive information related to your site, we will enable a private field for you so that you can securely share the access.

Based on the WPML Debug information, it appears that your WPML version is outdated. Please both the WPML plugin and its addons to the latest version, then verify if the issue persists.

Once done, please go to "Settings > Permalinks" and save the Permalink structure.

Let me know if that helps or if you need further assistance in this matter. I will be happy to help.

Best regards,
Prosenjit

September 27, 2023 at 9:24 am #14472151

tomA-13

Hi Prosenjit,

since there was no field to add login credentials like in former times, I just added it to the post. As you know, all links are getting hidden except for me and you. But when there are other safety issues with this - I will not add it anymore until asked.

We followed all your instructions. Updated all WPML plugins (only very minor updates) and saved Permalinks. This did not fix this bug.

We can now confirm that the WPML plugin version is not the root cause of the problem. So you would need to look if we are doing something wrong in the set-up.

Other categories are getting translated correctly:

hidden link
>
hidden link

hidden link
>
hidden link

Kindly let me know when you can send me the field where I can paste you the login link.

Thanks

September 27, 2023 at 10:16 am #14472777

tomA-13

One little interesting thing:

When you manually open

hidden link

the translation towards english works flawlessly

hidden link.

But when you want to translate from this page:

hidden link

you will land on

hidden link

where the slug /laender is missing.

This happens only for this category.

Thanks

September 28, 2023 at 8:33 am #14479731

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello There,
Thank you for updating the plugins and sharing more details about the issue.

We previously identified a compatibility issue between the "Primary Category" function of Yoast and the WPML plugin. Please check the Errata below.

- https://wpml.org/errata/yoast-seo-primary-category-is-not-synchronized-within-translations/

Could you please check if that workaround helps to solve the issue?

If the issue persists even after that, please try to reproduce the issue in the sandbox site mentioned below.

- hidden link

The WPML and its add-ons are already installed there. Just Install the plugins that will be required to reproduce the issue.

Once you're able to replicate the same issue, please let me know. I will investigate further and escalate to the 2nd tier team if required.

The purpose of a sandbox is to check what happens in a minimal environment. In this way, we can isolate the root cause of the issue.

Please let me know the update. I will be happy to help if you need further assistance in this matter.

Best Regards,
Prosenjit

September 28, 2023 at 8:51 am #14479917

tomA-13

Hi Prosenjit,

thanks for the update. This unfortunately does not work: https://wpml.org/errata/yoast-seo-primary-category-is-not-synchronized-within-translations/ as we don't have a problem with category for a product in WooCommerce.

We also did the set-up here in the sandbox quickly:
hidden link

There are 2 problems which do not help with troubleshoot.

1) The sandbox does not allow different slugs for main categories
2) When opening finally one post hidden link we cannot test the problem there because there is no language switch in frontend (which is our main problem) and also because the different slug problem is already making this test not the same like our situation

After these attempts we would really need someone from 2nd level who specifically look in our platform what is the problem for this very specific category.

Thank you

September 29, 2023 at 12:38 pm #14487717

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello There,
Thank you for the update.

I checked the sandbox and noticed that the Yoast plugin has not been installed there. Since the issue is happening only when you use the Primary category feature of Yoast, you should try to reproduce the issue by installing the Yoast SEO plugin.

However, if you're having difficulties in replicating the issue on Sandbox, I will be happy to check things further from your end.

I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site to take a better look at the issue. It would be better to have a testing site where the issue is replicated.

You will find the needed fields below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply. The information you will enter is private which means only you and I can see and have access to it.

Maybe I'll need to replicate your site locally. For this, I’ll need to temporarily install a plugin called “Duplicator” or "All in One WP Migration" on your site. This will allow me to create a copy of your site and your content. Once the problem is resolved I will delete the local site. Let me know if this is ok with you.

IMPORTANT
-Please backup site files and database before providing us access.
-If you do not see the wp-admin/FTP fields this means your post & website login details will be made PUBLIC. DO NOT post your website details unless you see the required wp-admin/FTP fields. If you do not, please ask me to enable the private box. The private box looks like this:
hidden link

Looking forward to your response and we are always here to assist.

Best Regards,
Prosenjit

October 2, 2023 at 4:57 am #14494183

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello Tom,
Thank you for sharing the access information.

I've reviewed all the settings and can verify that everything is set up correctly. However, while checking the theme, I noticed that several adjustments were made there for the English and translated versions of the categories and I'm assuming that was causing the issue.

Would you please switch to a default theme such as "Twenty Twenty-One" or the parent theme "Astra" and see if the problem persists? Prior to that, make sure to take a full backup of the site.

If the issue persists even after that, I will take a copy of your site, install it in our development environment, and forward this matter to the 2nd tier team for further investigation.

But, if switching to a default theme solves the issue, then you need to take a closer look at the code adjustments made for the default and translated categories.

Looking forward to your response and appreciate your patience and kind cooperation in this matter.

Best Regards,
Prosenjit

October 2, 2023 at 5:12 am #14494209

tomA-13

Hi Prosenjit,

as these are changes which are not suitable for production environment, I would suggest troubleshooting on staging environment.

We have switched the theme there to Twenty Twenty-Two and the issue exactly persists. So we can rule out any adjustments or theme issues.

Here is the proof:

hidden link

You can try the language switch and see the same problem.

For doing a copy of the site, I would suggest doing so from the staging. If you request the temp login, I will send it to you in the next ticket.

Thanks
Tom

October 2, 2023 at 7:26 am #14494913

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hi Tom,

If you have a staging site, that will be best to investigate the issue. I have enabled the private field for you so that you can securely share access to your staging site.

Looking forward to your response and appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Best Regards,
Prosenjit

October 3, 2023 at 8:02 am #14502013

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello There,
Thank you for sharing the access information to your staging site.

Upon reviewing the backend, I observed that your WordPress, theme, and plugins are not up-to-date. Several plugins, including Yoast, indicate that their current versions are incompatible with the WordPress version installed on your site. Please check this screenshot for a better understanding: hidden link.

However, I tested Yoast's "Primary category" feature in an updated WordPress environment and I can confirm that everything is working as expected, and I couldn't reproduce the issue.

Here is the main post: hidden link [Try to switch to the German language using the language switcher on the Footer. You'll see that the child category shows properly in the URL.]

Since everything works fine in an updated environment, I suspect that the outdated version of WordPress and Yoast is causing the issue. Please update the WordPress to 6.2 or Higher and then update the Yoast SEO plugin to its latest version 21.2. If you want, you can try on another staging site.

Once done, please retranslate that post again and let me know the update. If the issue persists, we will take another deeper look and try our best to solve the issue.

Best regards,
Prosenjit

October 3, 2023 at 8:36 am #14502325

tomA-13

Hi Prosenjit,

thanks a lot for your time and help.

We followed your steps. WordPress and Yoast have been updated on staging. After that we made a new post and translated it.

It looks like this: hidden link

and translates to this:

hidden link

So this did not help.

It would be also weird if that would solve it because the language switch for URL slug /cities and /island works correctly and populates the translated URL slug. So it is rather a specific problem with this category in our system than with any plugin or version. Otherwise the translations of the other categories would also not show properly the translated category slug after the language switch. (even before updating Yoast and WordPress)

In addition, we noticed that your test case has 2 different URL slugs

EN: /insights
DE: /insights-de

EN: hidden link
DE: hidden link

hidden link

We tried to make it the same slug but we could not manage it.
Can you try to make it the same slug (insights) and check again on sandbox?

Thanks
Tom

October 4, 2023 at 4:10 am #14509333

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hi Tom,

I tried keeping the slug the same(which is not recommended) and the issue didn't happen in the Sandbox.

However, for an in-depth investigation, I escalated this matter to the 2nd tier team. As soon as I have any update on this, I will surely inform you.

Thank you for your patience and kind cooperation. Should you have any other queries, feel free to let me know.

Best regards,
Prosenjit

October 11, 2023 at 6:50 am #14555399

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello Tom,
I hope you're doing well.

Our 2nd tier team is still investigating the issue. To set up the site in our development environment, I created a migration package. However, at the time of download, the download halted after reaching 1GB. Maybe Cloudflare is blocking the access.

Will it be possible for you to share an FTP access to the staging site that you shared earlier? If possible, you can also download the export package from here(hidden link), upload it on Google Drive, and share the drive link in the next response.

I enabled the private box for you so that you can securely share that. Looking forward to your response.

Best regards,
Prosenjit

October 11, 2023 at 10:50 am #14558449

Prosenjit Barman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Dhaka (GMT+06:00)

Hello Tom,
Thank you for sharing the FTP access.

I'm forwarding the package to the 2nd tier team for further investigation. As soon as I have any update, I will surely let you know.

Thank you for your patience and kind cooperation in this matter.

Best regards,
Prosenjit