[Resolved] Foreign language sites not showing the foreign language menu
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client was experiencing an issue where the blue menu beneath the black header was not showing links to their respective translated categories. Instead, all links were directing to the English category permalinks. This issue started occurring after 29/04.
Solution: 1. Go to Appearance -> Menus, and copy the menu ID (for example, 37). 2. Navigate to WPML -> String Translation. 3. Scroll down and click on the "Translate texts in admin screens »" link. 4. Search for the menu ID. 5. Select the string related to the menu ID. 6. Click on the "Add to String Translation" button. 7. Then click on the "« Return to String Translation" link. 8. Translate the menu ID into the translated menus IDs.
If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we recommend opening a new support ticket. We also 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.
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The blue menu (beneath the black header) should be showing links to their respective translated categories, but instead all direct to the English category permalinks.
This was working prior to 29/04
Link to a page where the issue can be seen:
hidden link hidden link hidden link
Every foreign language category is wrong.
I expected to see:
I would expect in the German site (/de/) to see all the links in the blue menu go to their respective German translated categories, for French (/fr/) to go to their French version, and US (/us/) to go to their US verison.
Instead, I got:
All going to the base English version.
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I have tried the following:
- Clear the cache in WPML
- Synchronize post taxonomies for Navigation menus
- Disable our Breeze (Varnish) cache and Cloudflare cache
- Re-saving the permalinks
- Unset the menu from a menu location and re-saving
- Do the Menu Sync between languages (twice)
The foreign menus definitely exist (screenshot 'CleanShot 2024-04-03 at 3.41.54.jpg').
We have only just resolved a previous ticket with WPML on a different issue, our client will not want to wait long to get this resolved. Please can we have this looked at and advised?
Thanks for contacting WPML forums support. I'll be glad to help you today.
I would need to look closely at your site, so I would need to request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) Preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated.
Your answer will be private, meaning only you and I can access it.
❌ Please backup your database and website ❌
✙ I need your permission to deactivate and reactivate the plugins and themes and change site configurations. This is also why the backup is critical.
✙ I also need your permission to take a local copy of your site to debug the issue without affecting your live site.
1- Go to Appearance-> Menus, and copy the menu ID (37)
2- Go to WPML-> String Translation
3- Scroll down and click on the "Translate texts in admin screens »" link
4- Search for the ID
5- Select the string
6- Click on the "Add to String Translation" button
7- Then click on the "« Return to String Translation" link
8- Translate the ID into the translated menus IDs
The solution you mentioned worked for the live website so thank you for that.
One question remains why this happened now? We never had this happening before so really strange to see this happening.
As I said before the menu was working on Thursday last week and since then no plugin updates have been made. I would understand if that was the case but it's not. We have other similar websites with similar plugins and all are working on those.
