I am using WPML together with Elementor and always work exclusively in the WPML Advanced Translation Editor (ATE). I never translate directly in the WordPress editor.
Recently, after making small updates to several pages, I noticed a major issue:
For many pages, WPML requires me to redo almost all translations. Previously created manual translations are not reused. Instead, the translation editor either shows empty fields or replaces content with automatic translations.
The actual content changes were minimal, so it seems that WPML has lost the connection to the existing translations.
This issue appeared after updating Elementor, so I suspect that changes in Elementor’s internal structure (e.g. containers, widgets, or JSON structure) may have caused WPML to treat the content as new and break the translation mapping.
Could you please clarify:
Is this expected behavior when Elementor updates change the content structure?
Why are existing translations not being reused?
Is there a way to restore or reconnect previous translations?
What is the recommended workflow to prevent this issue in the future?
This is critical for my work, as I build websites for clients and manually recreating translations is extremely time-consuming.
Just to confirm, the pages with this issue, were they originally created using the Advanced Translation Editor or at some point included manual translations via WP Editor or the classic translation editor?
If possible, please share with me an example of a change in the content that triggered this.
In the case of updating a string structure there is a chance that the system will see this as a new string which is why it's "empty" as well as not triggering the translation memory.
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