[Resolved] LearnDash course translations lose assigned lessons, create ghost duplicates, and show trashed conte...

Hi, and thanks for the access details.

I can see the problem on the English Course here: hidden link.

I could see that some lessons had the translation in progress. Please see the attached screenshot, untranslated-lessons.jpg. I completed the lessons and added them to the English course. Please see the attached screenshot, missing-lessons.jpg. But still no lessons show for the English course.

We suspect a collision with the theme or another plugin might cause this problem. If possible, get your site into a minimum environment, switching to a default WordPress theme like TwentyTwenty-Four and activating only WPML.

First, check whether the problem persists when only the theme is switched to TwentyTwenty-Four (for example). If it persists, deactivate all plugins except WPML and its add-ons and WooCommerce without any extensions. Then, please check if the problem persists. If it does not continue, start by activating the plugins individually and checking when the issue comes back, then report to me which plugin was the culprit.

**** Important! Please make a full site backup (files and DB) before you proceed with those steps****


*** If your site is live, you might want to try those procedures in a staging environment or a snapshot of your site on your local server or another server. ***

Alternatively, you can try to replicate this issue on a fresh WordPress installation. Then I'll be able to escalate it to our compatibility team. For this, I created a test website with a clean WordPress install. You can access it through this link:

hidden link

With this link, you'll be directly logged in.

I configured WPML on this site and installed the LearnDash plugin.
Are you able to replicate the problem on the sandbox site?
If so, please describe the steps you took to replicate it.
When everything is finished and you can replicate the problem, please let us know.
Important! Do not import your site to the test site. We must replicate the problem on a fresh, clean WordPress installation.

Regards,
Itamar.

Hi, Bärbel.

Thanks for trying to replicate the problem on the sandbox site.

However, I checked, and as far as I can see, you have not precisely followed the instructions for using LeanDash and translating it with WPML. Here is an explanation of what I have found.

A. When I edited the translated 'testing' course in English, I found that in the builder tab, you have not added the lessons. Please see the attached screenshot no-lessons.jpg.

B. Moreover, I found that you have not added questions to the translated English quiz. Please see the attached screenshot no-questions.jpg.

C. After adding the lessons and quiz in English, the course displays the translations. Please see the attached screenshot en-course-ok.jpg.

You wrote:

And just as a note to your developers: having to manually translate every single LearnDash element is not a sustainable workflow for multilingual environments.

I'm sorry if things weren't clear to you; however, that is not true. As explained in our guide, you can translate the courses, lessons, quizzes, and questions from the Translation Dashboard of WPML with the Advanced Translation Editor. Or directly from the editing screens. The only exception is translating the answers to the questions. For the answers, please switch to the translated question and add them manually, as explained in our guide here: https://wpml.org/documentation/plugins-compatibility/how-to-create-multilingual-online-courses-websites-using-learndash-and-wpml/#translating-answers. Furthermore, adding lessons and quizzes with the builder uses the LeanDash method, not WPML's. Therefore, if you must add them manually in the default language, or even if WPML is not installed and there is only one language on the site, then you also must do that in the translations, as explained in our guide here: https://wpml.org/documentation/plugins-compatibility/how-to-create-multilingual-online-courses-websites-using-learndash-and-wpml/#:~:text=just%20as%20you%20did%20when%20building%20your%20course
The same principle applies to the trashed lessons and quizzes. Since LeanDash displays those trashed items in the default language, and even when WPML is not active, trashed translations still appear, it is not a WPML issue. Please see the attached screenshot trashed.jpg. Please note that 'trashed' is just a post status like 'draft' or 'published'. If you don't want to see those trashed items, you need to delete them permanently from the trash section.

In conclusion, I'd say there is no compatibility issue (at least not in the respect you thought) with LeanDash and WPML. It's just that it is essential to follow the guide on working with LeanDash and on translating with WPML.

I hope that this explanation makes things clear.
Please let me know if you think otherwise or have doubts.

Regards,
Itamar.