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[Resolved] Clean up orphaned content erasing content from another languge

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

Problem:
After migrating a regional language site from /mx/ to /es/ and deactivating the old MX language, a number of ES posts went missing. Initially, there were 43 blog posts, but after the cleanup, only 19 remained.
Solution:
We recommend checking the following settings in WPML:
1. Navigate to WPML->Settings->Posts and pages synchronization and ensure that the options 'When deleting a post, delete translations as well' and 'When deleting a taxonomy (category, tag or custom), delete translations as well' are unchecked.
2. Go to WPML->Support->Troubleshooting and click the following buttons:
+ Clear Cache in WPML
+ Set Language information
+ Fix element types collation
+ Remove ghost entries from the translation tables
+ Assign translation status to duplicated content
These steps should help recover the missing posts.

If these steps do not resolve your issue or if the solution seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix,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 the problem persists, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

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

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This topic contains 2 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by peterL-60 3 weeks, 1 day ago.

Assisted by: Shekhar Bhandari.

Author Posts
December 31, 2025 at 12:31 am #17697781

peterL-60

We used to have a a regional language site for spanish at /mx/. We are migrating that to just a language subdomain of /es/. We followed the advice here: https://wpml.org/faq/how-can-i-assign-or-change-language-code-to-existing-content/

So we created the new new language at the /es/ subdomain and copied all the of the MX content to it. After deactivating the old MX language we are given the option to remove the existing (MX) translations saved in your database. There are many thousands of records so we do want to get these old/duplicate entries removed.

After removing all of the MX content using the tool in WPML > Languages, we find that a number of our ES posts go missing in the process. For instance before cleaning up the old MX content we have 43 blog posts. Afterwards we have only 19. Similar issues pop up across multiple post types.
December 31, 2025 at 3:04 am #17697851

peterL-60

Just to update here on what I have tried and learned so far.

First I updated all WPML plugins and add-ons and all other site plugins in my local environment.

I believe the content that is being removed is content where MX was the original language code. I've already set all of these posts/pages to be translated independently. Additionally just now I used the 'wpml_set_element_language_details' action hook to set the source language to 'null' for any ES post that previously had MX as the source language.

However when I cleanup the old MX content on the site I am experiencing the same issue, the same number of ES posts/pages go missing during this cleanup.
December 31, 2025 at 4:32 am #17697910

Shekhar Bhandari
WPML Supporter since 03/2015

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Kathmandu (GMT+05:45)

Hello there,

Thank you for contacting WPML support. I'd be happy to assist you on this issue.

Could you please go to WPML->Settings->Posts and pages synchronization and check if the following options are unchecked?
- When deleting a post, delete translations as well
- When deleting a taxonomy (category, tag or custom), delete translations as well

Further, Could you please go to WPML-> Support ->Troubleshooting and click the below buttons:

+ Clear Cache in WPML
+ Set Language information
+ Fix element types collation
+ Remove ghost entries from the translation tables
+ Assign translation status to duplicated content

Let me know if this helps.

Thanks
January 1, 2026 at 1:53 am #17698968

peterL-60

Thank you, going through those steps does seem to have resolved this issue.