Background of the issue:
I am trying to ensure that media is not translated and appears consistently across all language versions of my website. I am using the 'WP Offload Media Lite' plugin to offload media to an AWS S3 bucket. The issue is observed on the Portuguese version of the website, where some images are not visible. Here is an example of a blog article where the featured image is not visible in the Portuguese version: hidden link. Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link
Symptoms:
Media is not rendering on the Portuguese version of the website, while it is expected to show the same on all languages.
Questions:
Why is the media not showing on the Portuguese version of the website?
Could the 'WP Offload Media Lite' plugin be causing this issue?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Hello,
WPML relies on WordPress’s native media library and attachment metadata. When media is offloaded to S3:
- The physical file is no longer stored locally
- The attachment metadata may be incomplete or filtered
- WPML may fail to detect the image as translatable or linkable across languages
Additionally, if the image is inserted via a builder or custom field, WPML may not hook into the rendering logic.
According to WP Offload Media's documentation they created their own WPML Inntegration for this purpose: hidden link
They are saying there, that this integration is available to all license owners, which means that it might not be included inside the Lite version of the plugin.
Could you please calrify this with DelicousBrains and let us know in case further assistance might be needed?
I have upgraded WP Offload Media to ensure I have WPML Integration.
The problem still persists though and I have been working with the team at WP Offload Media to investigate and we bumped into an WPML issue which seems to indicate that the problem is indeed with the WPML Plugin and not the WP Offload Media plugin.
In my prod website I observed the following:
This image (created in the main language) is working 👇
- File URL: hidden link
- Path: wp-content/uploads/2025/09/15143440/hordgla2lek.jpg
This is the Duplicate image👇
- File URL: hidden link
Note how the duplicate is pointing directly at my domain `/wp-content/` directory under `hidden link` instead of my S3 bucket `hidden link` which explains why the duplicate is not visible.
Furthermore, note how the original file URL has the time stamp after the date `2025/09/15143440` where as the duplicate image is missing this time stamp and trying to access the file after the month `2025/09/hordgla2lek.jpg`.
Moreover I created a staging copy of my website for testing where the WP Offload Media was disabled and a page "Test" was created where an image was added and then we ran into the following issue:
```
WPML experienced an issue while trying to automatically translating some of your content:
• Test
To translate these items, please go to Translation Management and send them for translation.
If the problem continues, contact WPML support for assistance.
```
See - hidden link
The url `/wp-admin` is not available but you can access the staging website admin area at:
- hidden link
Please use the support user to access the website so you can observe the error by yourself.
Username: satori.digital.info@gmail.com
Not sure if you're referring to the Quic.cloud I have connected in Prod but I've reenabled that on staging by enabling the LS Cache Plugin and then LiteSpeed Cache > General > Online Services.
On my prod, Media (attachment) was also set to "Not translatable" at WPML > Settings > Post Types Translation. This was because I didn't really want to translate media but just to use exactly the same media assets on other languages. So I was under the impression that "Non Translatable" would be the case for that. I've already changed it in prod as well.
How can I check that WPML String Translation is active?
Also, on my version of WPML I do not have the option WPML > Settings > Media Translation. I. only have WPML > Media Translation and under that I don't have an option that says "Automatically detect best options for translating image texts (alt, caption, title)" > "Setup manually" > checkboxes for duplicating media for Existing content and then click "Start the process".
I see that the media exists on my translated post: hidden link
And I know it's not pointing to my S3 bucket yet but I'm a bit concerned that the path of the file is: "https://cdn.wpml.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/sample.jpeg" because it doesn't have the same structure as my files in the S3 bucket: "https://cdn.wpml.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/[TIME_STAMP]/sample.jpeg"
If it's easier for you to test things directly on my prod site, could you please provide me with an e-mail address so that I can add you as a user for that WordPress environment?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
The problem was that the S3 bucket was not loading through WP Offload Media, but now that I connect again, I am able to see the original English images.
I see now basically two issues here.
WP Offload Media issue:
Currently, on your staging, only 53% of media is uploaded to S3. If I try to complete the upload, it leads to an error:
Erros de descarregamento — Tentativas anteriores de descarregar sua biblioteca de mídia resultaram em erros.
98 media files are not able ot be uploaded as they seem to no longer exist on the site.
WPML issue:
Now, when I try to sync the media at WPML > Settings > Media Translation, I can not confirm that the media is synced. If you go to the media library and switch the language in the top admin bar to Portuguese, the images still will not show up.
It looks like there is an issue with syncing the media as long as it is coming from the S3 bucket through WP Offload Media, and this issue persists, if I test only with WP Offload Media and WPML.
In some cases, even the following error occurs when trying to sync the media: Duplicate media: please try again (parsererror)
---
Possible causes for the WPML issue:
I am now aware of how WP Offload Media's approach of integrating WPML works logically.
I would suggest contacting WP Offload Media.
I see, for example, that you have enabled the option "Remove Local Media" and this will lead to WPML no longer detecting the original images in WordPress, and therefore, it can no longer sync them.
Also, I suspect that the fact that it is not working are the following options:
- Add Year & Month to Bucket Path
- Add Object Version to Bucket Path
WP Offload Media might not have considered implementing a proper compatilbity for WPML as long as this option is enabled.
From our end, I could only offer to provide a WPML Test Site on which you could register the premium version of the plugin, and we could try to replicate the issue and then take a look at the code of the plugin, but as WP Offload Media handles the compatilbity for WPML by themselves, this is usually something that needs to be solved on their end.
---
Regarding your comment:
Please follow the exact steps from my last comment.
You will not see the option WPML > Settings > Media Translation as long as media is set to "Not translatable".
Also, WPML String Translation needs to be enabled in your plugin's list.
I have reached out to WP Offload Media and they came back with an question to you - I'll paste here their answer:
--
Thanks for the update. In that case, it might that the issue is caused by the "Remove Local Media" option.
To ensure we're testing their feedback correctly, could WPML clarify what they mean by "syncing the media" in WPML? Are they referring to the manual process under WPML > Settings > Media Translation? See - hidden link
If so, we can try disabling Remove Local Media in WP Offload Media and run the media sync again to confirm the behavior.
--
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
Yes, when I refer to syncing media, I mean "WPML > Settings > Media Translation." Additionally, depending on these settings, WPML syncs the press each time you upload media to the media library or when translating your content.
You received this suggestion:
If so, we can try disabling Remove Local Media in WP Offload Media and running the media sync again to confirm the behavior.
This is likely the reason for the issue.
As I said earlier:
I see, for example, that you have enabled the option "Remove Local Media" and this will lead to WPML no longer detecting the original images in WordPress, and therefore, it can no longer sync them.
This means that you do see the media inside the media library, but it is coming from S3 and does not physically exist on the server, and this is why WPML can not recognize it.
The topic ‘[Closed] Media is not showing’ is closed to new replies.
