Our translations have partially disappeared in German

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

Problem:
The client reported that some German translations on their website reverted to English, despite no changes being made to WPML settings or Toolset Views. Specific issues were noted with the translation of single posts and elements translated using the [wpml-string] shortcode.
Solution:
We identified that the issue was related to the Astra theme. The Astra developers provided a patched version (4.13.2.1) which resolved the issue with the [wpml-string] translations. It is expected that this fix will be included in the next release of the Astra theme. Therefore, if you're experiencing similar translation issues, we recommend checking if you are using the Astra theme and updating to the latest version available.

Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case.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 issue persists, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

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Tagged: Compatibility

This topic contains 13 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Christopher Amirian 2 months ago.

Assisted by: Christopher Amirian.

Author	Posts
April 29, 2026 at 2:44 pm #18003336
simonM-37	We noticed today that some of our German translations have reverted to the default language of English, without having changed any WPML settings or the affected Toolset Views, eg hidden link, hidden link Some elements remain translated, while others not. I tried all the usual steps, cleared WP Rocket Cache/CSS/Prioritiy Elements/Redis Cache, and ran most of the safer less drastic buttons in WPML > Settings > Troubleshooting, including the WPML cache, also optimised the tables. Also the single posts nanny-ad and job-ad are not being translated correctly. I haven't checked all post types because I presume it's a general issue, since I haven't been making any changes recently. What else could be the problem? Thanks and kind regards Simon
April 30, 2026 at 8:24 am #18004782
Shekhar Bhandari WPML Supporter since 03/2015 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Kathmandu (GMT+05:45)	Hello there, Thank you for contacting WPML support. I'd be happy to assist you on this issue. To debug this issue further, I would need to check your site settings once, for this I would need temporary access (wp-admin and ftp) to your site. So could you please provide me with those details, you will find the needed fields for this below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply. hidden link This info is private and available to you and WPML supporters only. Read more about this: https://wpml.org/purchase/support-policy/privacy-and-security-when-providing-debug-information-for-support/ Note: Backup your sites before providing the credentials or if possible provide credentials for the test site Look forward to your reply. Thanks
April 30, 2026 at 12:26 pm #18005775
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Hello Simon, I checked and could not find any clue why this might happen. Would you please test for a minimal installation? - IMPORTANT STEP! Create a backup of your website. Or better approach will be to test this on a copy/staging version of the website to avoid any disruption of a live website. - Switch to the default theme such as "TwentyTwenty" by going to "WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > themes". - Go to "WordPress Dashboard > Plugins" and deactivate all plugins except: . WPML Multilingual CMS . WPML String translation . Toolset Types . Toolset Blocks - Check if you can still recreate the issue. - If not, re-activate your plugins one by one and check the issue each time to find out the plugin that causes the problem. Thanks.
May 4, 2026 at 5:57 pm #18011644
simonM-37	Hi Christopher I will try this tonight or tomorrow. Just wanted to acknowledge your post so the ticket doesn't auto-close. I noticed the issue is also on our dev site. So I can test safer there and get back to you! Kind regards Simon
May 5, 2026 at 7:39 am #18012682
simonM-37	Hi Christopher The issue appears to be related to the Astra (or Astra child) theme. Changing to 2025 theme immediately resolves the issue. So what could be the issue here? I noticed some WPML related changes on Astra's changelog: Quote: Astra v4.13.1 Hey everyone 👋 This one is a focused patch, with bugs that have been quietly causing grief for mobile visitors, multilingual sites, WooCommerce stores, and Elementor users. No new features, just things working the way they should. and specifically: Customizer text strings reverted to the admin language on the frontend with WPML. Default strings like “Read More”, “Related Posts”, and button labels switched to the admin’s language instead of the visitor’s. So I am assuming this error crept in then. However I would be surprised if other customers had not experienced the same issues as Astra is a common theme. I will open a ticket with Astra support in parallel, however I would also like WPML's take on the issue. Are there any internal discussions between WPML and Astra which would be relevant? Thanks and kind regards Simon Kind regards Simon
May 5, 2026 at 8:10 am #18012789
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Hi Simon, I checked the Astra theme versioning, and it seems the version is very new (April 27th). I checked our compatibility page here: https://wpml.org/theme/astra/ I see two known issues, one is the slide-in cart, which I do not think is related to your scenario. But maybe the other one is. Can you check and see if following the steps below would fix the issue? https://wpml.org/errata/astra-theme-some-translations-not-displaying-when-user-profile-language-matches-sites-default-language/ If not, then it might be a new compatibility issue. To be able to report the compatibility issues we need to replicate the issue on a clean installation. I created a clean installation of WordPress, WPML, and all necessary WPML add-ons. You can access the WordPress dashboard using the link below: hidden link Kindly follow the steps below: - Install Astra theme. - Try to replicate the issue. This will help us to report the probable issue to the compatibility team and solve the possible problem faster. Thanks.
May 6, 2026 at 11:07 am #18017138
simonM-37	Hi Christopher I'm not seeing that at line 180 in file class-astra-theme-extension.php. In fact when I search the file I'm not even finding if ( $wp_version >= 4.7 ) Which version of Astra Theme is the mentioned code referring to in https://wpml.org/errata/astra-theme-some-translations-not-displaying-when-user-profile-language-matches-sites-default-language/? Kind regards Simon
May 6, 2026 at 2:09 pm #18017925
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Hi Simon, It seems that the new version of Astra is change dand that errata is obsolete now. So I'd appreciate it if you could replicate the same issue ont he installation I mentioend and I will report this. Thanks.
May 7, 2026 at 6:57 am #18019106
simonM-37	Hi Christopher I passed on your errata to the Astra developers. They have been able to reproduce the error. They say "I was able to reproduce this on my test site with just WPML String Translation and by adding the text with the [wpml-string] shortcode. We have reported the problem to the developers and hope to resolve it soon." As I suspected, it appears to be with all strings which are translated using [wpml-string] shortcode (of which we have hundreds on our site!) I'll keep you posted here too! Kind regards Simon
May 7, 2026 at 11:25 am #18020147
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Thanks, Simon, Please get back to us if the issue is fixed, so we can update the Errata entry. Thanks.
May 11, 2026 at 9:06 am #18026500
simonM-37	Hi Christopher Astra Dev is still working on the issue. Can you prevent this ticket from auto-closing until we get the info back from them? Kind regards Simon
May 11, 2026 at 10:27 am #18026951
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Hi Simon, The ticket will be auto-closed after 10 days. So by adding a reply before that time period, the ticket will keep open. But even if it is closed, you can open up another one and link this ticket: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/our-translations-have-partially-disappeared-in-german/ Thanks.
May 14, 2026 at 10:29 am #18035399
simonM-37	Hi Christopher Astra has provided us with a patched version 4.13.2.1 of the Astra theme, which seems to resolve the translation of [wpml-string] translations. So I expect they will be bundling the fix into the next release of Astra. I don't think we need any more help from WPML here. Kind regards Simon
May 14, 2026 at 1:59 pm #18036230
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Thank you Simon.