Hreflang tags are not working on some sitemap pages

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

Problem:
The client reported that hreflang tags were missing from the XML sitemap for product pages, product category pages, product tags, and blog post categories on their website.
Solution:
We recommended updating the WPML and Yoast SEO plugins to the latest versions. After updating these plugins on the client's sandbox site, we verified that the hreflang tags were correctly added to the XML sitemap. We then advised the client to update the plugins on their production site and recheck the sitemap.

If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix,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.

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This topic is split from https://wpml.org/forums/topic/split-taxonomy-sitemaps-are-loading-incredibly-slow-google-fetch-is-timing-out/

Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 6 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by peterJ-48 3 weeks, 2 days ago.

Assisted by: Long Nguyen.

Author	Posts
March 30, 2026 at 9:07 am #17935726
peterJ-48	Hi Long In the WPML documentation it says that: “By default, WPML adds hreflang tags for every URL variation directly in the XML sitemap for more efficient SEO.” https://wpml.org/documentation/plugins-compatibility/using-wordpress-seo-with-wpml/ This works for pages and blogs, but it does not work for: - Product pages - Product category pages - Product tags Please try and check hidden link
March 30, 2026 at 9:22 am #17935793
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi Peter, I'm not able to reproduce the issue on my demo site and just see the issue on your site. Can you please copy your production site to a staging/development site and share the credentials (wp-admin and FTP) so I can check the issue further? Your next reply is set to private to share the info. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks
March 30, 2026 at 2:28 pm #17937073
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, The admin username isn't correct. Can you please check this and share the admin account again? Thanks.
March 31, 2026 at 1:47 am #17938110
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, I updated WPML, Yoast SEO plugins on your sandbox site and checked the sitemap; the hreflang tags are added to the XML sitemap as well. Please check the attached screenshots. Please update plugins on your production site to the latest version and recheck the issue. Looking forward to your reply. Thanks
March 31, 2026 at 7:37 am #17938438
peterJ-48	Hi Long, We are having massive problems with our production server. We are having constant ATE server communication errors that seams to be pulling down our site (we have seen that one’s before) We are unable to register the site key of the production server. Have you been doing something on the ATE side when updating the plugins? New threads created by Long Nguyen and linked to this one are listed below: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/we-are-having-massive-problems-with-our-production-server/
April 1, 2026 at 2:35 am #17941578
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, To handle the issue better, we recommend you raise one issue per ticket. I've split your new issue related to the ATE connection and sitekey to a new ticket. Here is the ticket URL https://wpml.org/forums/topic/we-are-having-massive-problems-with-our-production-server/ Let me know if you still experience the issue with hreflang tags in the sitemap after updating WPML and Yoast SEO plugins to the latest versions. Thank you.
April 1, 2026 at 4:37 pm #17943971
peterJ-48	Hi Long, The hreflang tags are now in all sitemaps on our production site. Thank you for your assistance. I will close this ticket Best regards Peter