They seem the exact same issue, because you have some jobs stuck, while I can complete and save them successfully by trying to edit the translation through the 'Edit screen' of the desired post (the first workaround suggested in the thread above).
May I kindly ask you to review if we're talking about the same issue in two different tickets? Thank you.
Hi Mateus, thanks for checking, and yes, that is a different, separate issue.
The other ticket involves the "We're sorry, but something went wrong" error if we attempt to use the "Edit Translation" option on a translated post. We cannot use that feature or else the translation edits will not successfully complete. That issue has nothing to do with automatic translations.
This issue is about the automatic translations that keep getting stuck, making automatic translation virtually unusable.
So in this issue, we visit the translation management section of WPML, select a page, and send it for automatic translation. And almost all the time now, the automatic translations never complete -- they are stuck with a message that indicates that there is only one minute remaining even after hours or days have passed.
I've linked a few videos in this ticket to show the exact problem with automatic translations, to try and show the exact problem and how to recreate it. Is there anything else that you recommend that I try instead, in order to troubleshoot this problem with automatic translations?
FYI, not sure whether this is related but the wpml.org main site and support forum were offline for a few minutes just now, with a 502 gateway error. I made sure that it wasn't my browser, and that other sites were still reachable. They were.
This might be related to my hypothesis that the automatic translation might be getting overwhelmed with usage during typical US business hours. And perhaps there's no timeout function built into the WPML software to cancel and possibly retry automatic jobs that have failed due to a timeout within the automatic translation software.
If it helps, we use DeepL as our primary option for automatic translations. Maybe your tools are running into some sort of API-related problem like a rate limitation.
But even if that's the case, it seems that the WPML software might lack a cancel-and-retry function to handle automatic translation jobs that have timed out.
Is there a way to ask about that -- (1) whether a cancel-and-retry function exists within WPML for automatic translations, and (2) what the timeout value is supposed to be if there is one?
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hi there,
Answering your questions:
Is there a way to ask about that -- (1) whether a cancel-and-retry function exists within WPML for automatic translations, and (2) what the timeout value is supposed to be if there is one?
1 - You can always cancel the Jobs translation in the WPML -> Translation Management -> Jobs tab, or cancel the translations reviews in WPML -> Translations, and then send the pages to translation again.
2 - I'm afraid we do not have a timeout like you described. However, what I see that's happening is that you're not reviewing your translations in WPML -> Translation? Because in the WPML -> Settings -> Automatic Translation options settled right now we have 'Let me review it before it gets published'. Therefore, you still need to go to WPML -> Translations, open the translation jobs and approve or reject them.
Further, I don't think the automatic translation could be get overwhelmed with usage during typical US business hours, because so far I haven't seen anything like this before, I'm not sure if it would be the case.
We're able to repeat the steps you're doing in the videos, open and review/edit the translations in the 'WPML -> Translations' page. If you're still stuck, may I kindly ask again to provide us with your user credentials?
You wrote:
"You can always cancel the Jobs translation in the WPML -> Translation Management -> Jobs tab, or cancel the translations reviews in WPML -> Translations, and then send the pages to translation again."
Yes but this is a manual process and it's not feasible as a workaround in most cases because nobody is available to sit there and keep canceling and retrying manually for hours until the automatic translations work again. The automatic translation fail to work most of the time these days, so this is truly not feasible to handle manually.
Is there a function built into WPML where it attempts automatic translations, then retries if no successful response arrives after a certain amount of time? Otherwise, the connection would time out on the ATE/API end of things, and the WPML WordPress software would never know that the automatic translation failed.
This might be what's happening here, that the WPML WordPress software just assumes that the automatic translation is in progress, and it never checks in again after the initial attempt.
So if the job fails, the software just keeps waiting forever for a job that will never complete.
"We're able to repeat the steps you're doing in the videos, open and review/edit the translations in the 'WPML -> Translations' page. If you're still stuck, may I kindly ask again to provide us with your user credentials?"
Recently, I recreated the problem with the "wpml" credentials that I've shared with you, to make sure that this problem is not limited to my user account.
I was successfully able to recreate the problem while logged in as "wpml", so please continue to use these credentials in any testing.
Languages: English (English )Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )
Timezone: America/Sao_Paulo (GMT-03:00)
Hi there,
Just to make sure, do we have your authorization to make a copy of the website and migrate it into another server? In order to perform more complex tests without compromising the live production.
We tried to do that ourselves, but it seems that we do not have more the needed permissions and therefore we cannot access the Plugins -> Add New page: hidden link
Could you please review it? Or if you prefer to provide a website package, your next response will have the correspondent private field for it.
Hi Mateus, it's not possible to install new plugins directly in production because all code goes through git version control, so if you can share the plugin that you'd like to install, we can quickly review and install it.
Mateus, please allow me to note one thing that's essential to this ticket:
Whatever you find and whatever you suggest, we need a solution that works with Pantheon hosting, which enforces a certain amount of security and change management.
Specifically, there are two important things to know about Pantheon:
1. Pantheon runs on NGINX, so there's no .htacess support.
2. For WordPress sites on Pantheon, /wp-content/uploads is the default location for files. All other locations are considered part of the codebase, and under version control. So if a plugin attempts to write to a path that's under version control, a symlink is required.
Ultimately, we need a solution that works with Pantheon hosting.
We can provide whatever you need to test WPML compatibility with Pantheon for yourself, to make sure that automatic translations will work reliably.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this essential requirement: compatibility with Pantheon hosting.
Now, regarding which plugin we would install - it is the 'Duplicator Pro' plugin. We have prepared this link for you, please check it: hidden link. If possible, upload and activate it, so that we can make a lighter copy of the website.
You wrote "otherwise there would have more reports from different clients hosted on this platform". But please note that I've filed a few tickets for WPML + Pantheon compatibility issues in the past, both in my current role and in past roles with different employers and clients who used Pantheon. Some of these issues were fixed in WPML and some had workarounds documented. Not sure why you're seeing something different.
I'm looking into the errata link that you provided, because I'm not sure whether we're changing the WP_TEMP_DIR temp directory, so this might be something to try. I'll be in touch later today after I test this in a test environment.
I also realized that the automatic translations might work more reliably when people use the ATE, and less reliably when sending translations directly for automatic translation, so I'll test that if this temp-folder-related workaround fails to help.
After I test that, if there's still a problem, I'll install the Duplicator plugin that you provided, and will let you know when that's ready.
FYI, Mateus, it seems that Pantheon implemented the suggested WP_TEMP_DIR code back in August 11th, 2020, after this errata was created.
It looks like they implemented the code as written at that time, and then made a minor change to better support local development paths on September 9th, 2021, although the path remains effectively unchanged in production. I tested this with some of my own code, to report on the value of WP_TEMP_DIR in different environments.
So it seems that WP_TEMP_DIR is not part of the problem after all.
Next steps:
* I'll now work to get that plugin in place.
* I'll test and compare automatic translations on our production site, comparing what happens when we use the WPML translation management tools to directly create automatic translations versus what happens if we manually send translations to the ATE and then automatically translate within the ATE.
The Duplicator Pro plugin is now install on our production environment, so feel free to activate the plugin and use it at your convenience.
Please also deactivate this plugin when not in use.
Also, I've manually canceled the automatic job in progress, which has been stuck in progress for several days. Next up, I'll test a few automatic translations through the ATE to see whether the problem is specific to the WPML Translation Management functions or whether the problem exists when someone tries to translate automatically from within the ATE.
