[Resolved] Elementor Header footer broken after installing WPML plugin
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client experienced a noticeable slowdown and layout issues with Elementor after installing WPML. Elements such as headers and footers disappeared or appeared broken, and styles like text colors were affected. The issues were resolved upon deactivating WPML. Solution: We initially suggested a WPML reset and reinstallation, which did not resolve the issue. After further investigation, we identified the problem was related to the PHP settings on the hosting environment, specifically the
pcre.backtrack_limit
configuration. We applied a workaround by adding the following code to the
Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. If the problem persists, we highly recommend checking related known issues at WPML Known Issues, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If necessary, please open a new support ticket in the WPML support forum.
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.
"Noman : This issue arises when we activate WPML String Translation plugin. To further debug this issue, I\'m going to move this chat into a forum ticket and we will get back to you with an update soon."
Just making sure that this hasn't been forgotten, as the client is waiting for the website.
Thank you for contacting WPML support, I’m happy to help you with this issue.
It is very weird. I try some troubleshooting steps on your site, but the header/footer still doesn't work. I take a backup of your site and restore it on my localhost, they display properly without any issues. Please check the attached screenshot.
I think there could be an issue with your hosting but I'm not sure what it is. Please also share the FTP account and I can check some configurations. Your next reply is set to private to share the info.
❌ IMPORTANT: Please backup your database and website before proceeding ❌
Please, pause any tests that you might currently be doing on the website. The client needs to edit some content, so I will now restore a backup from before I installed WPML and we will be working on the still clean website before WPML was installed.
We still need assistance, so please don't close this ticket. I'll let you know once you can test again, or I'll soon provide you a copy of the site where you can keep testing.
I have updated my last private message in this thread with the new credentials for the testing site. Admin credentials and FTP credentials have been provided for the new testing site where you can debug the issue.
Since I had to install WPML on the new test site because it was created from a backup pre-WPML, I recorded a video reproducing the issue from scratch:
hidden link
As you can see, it already happens with the default settings, before I start editing any more options from WPML.
I want to add something else, because although they may look like unrelated support topics, I have the feeling that they might actually stem from the same issue:
This might be my misunderstanding, maybe it doesn't work until all the content has been translated, or maybe I'm right and it should be synchronizing the menu items with the new language. Please take a look at it as well, or let me know if I am syncing the menus incorrectly so that we can discard this as being a related issue.
We cannot replicate the issue locally so the 2nd tier support applied the workaround on your test site. The following code below is added to the file wp-config.php to fix the issue:
That seems to be working for now. I've applied it as well to the original site and it's working there as well!
Could we please get an explanation of what was the problem and why are those lines necessary and what do they do? I would like to take notes for if it happens again and to try to find a solution that doesn't require those lines (maybe those settings can be applied from cPanel).
I'll mark this as resolved after we have completed some translations and everything looks well, just in case.
Thank you,
Gerard
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