[Resolved] Section layouts content missing after tranlsation update
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client was experiencing an issue where updating the translation on one of the Portuguese pages caused all the layout content to disappear, resulting in a broken page. The Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) was not appearing, and when using the duplicate option, the page could be edited normally through the WordPress Editor, but automatic translations were not available.
Solution: We resolved the issue by ensuring that the field name "field-page_section-0" (intro) was consistent across languages. It was translated to Portuguese in ATE, while for French, it remained the same as English. We corrected the translation, and the Portuguese page started working correctly. We also advised the client that ATE does not usually translate special content like CSS, JS, HTML, JSON, IDs, etc. If automatic translation results in incorrect field names, the client can manually edit the translation in ATE and update the translation memory for future consistency. Additionally, we suggested using the Glossary feature to handle special words. For more information on translation memory, visit Translation Memory documentation, and for the Glossary feature, see Glossary Entries documentation.
Please note that this solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. If you're still facing issues, we highly recommend checking related known issues at WPML 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 with us.
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Currently when I try to update the translation on one of the Portuguese pages (Capacidades) on some of the Portuguese translated pages (e. g. Homepage(Página inicial)) all the layout content disappears and the page gets broken. By the previous WPML support feedback, I've been advised not to mix the WPML and WordPress editors, but the Advanced Translation Editor does not appear. I've tried to debug and noticed that empty layouts are returned. After deleting the broken translation page, if the duplicate option is used, the page can be edited normally through the WordPress Editor, but automatic translations cannot be used. What could cause the issue, and how could be resolved?
I can provide you with a working staging instance, so you can recreate and investigate it.
Here is a video and attached screenshots of the issue: hidden link
Before proceeding further, may I ask you to try the following?
IMPORTANT: Take full backup of your website and database beforehand. It is highly advised to try the following on a staging/dev site first, so your live website isn't compromised.
- Update WPML plugins to the latest version, since you're using previous versions, updating may help fixing the said problem with automatic translation.
If that doesn't help after updating, try the following in given order, that you may find a possible reason:
- Clear all caches.
- Try these WPML Troubleshooting options: https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-troubleshooting-options/
- Deactivate all plugins except WPML and its addons and check for the issue.
- Activate each plugin one-by-one, while keeping check on the issue after a plugin is activated. This way you'll be able to pinpoint a plugin having a conflict (or problem), if any.
- If the problem persists, repeat the above steps with a default theme of WordPress (i.e. 2021 or 2024).
Please let me know your findings and I'll try my best to help you further on the matter.
I've tried disabling the plugins, changing the active theme, and using the WPML Troubleshooting Options, but any of these actions leads to the same issue - the layout names get translated and layout content disappears then the page gets broken. Even just accessing the plugins page does the same.
Looks like any change made to the database leads to the same issue.
Here is a video and a screenshot with debug turned on: hidden link
Looks like you haven't updated the WPML plugins to the latest. Or have you tried that also (in addition to deactivating the plugins)?
The error you showed in the screenshot is coming from your theme, which I can't find on our compatibility list (https://wpml.org/theme/). Or perhaps it is based on another theme but heavily customized?
However, I need to take a closer look at your site. So I request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP), preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated.
Your next answer will be private, to share this information safely.
Also provide detailed steps to reproduce the issue and links to pages in admin and on frontend.
IMPORTANT: Please take a complete backup of the site to avoid data loss. I may need to activate/deactivate plugins also.
Thank you for the details, I tested a few things and indeed I can see the problem.
But I am not sure if this is really coming from WPML, because translations are complete and there are no apparent bugs.
So I created this test page hidden link by cloning your home page. It had the same problem as your original home page.
Then I followed these steps:
- Deleted the translations.
- Deactivated all plugins except WPML + ST + ACF and ACFML.
- Added the transalations.
And the translated versions started showing something promising:
- PT: hidden link
- FR: hidden link
Although they're not exactly the same as the home page in English, but some content is showing up, following more or less the same design.
So my observation is:
- Translations may need some design elements to be corrected when translating in ATE.
- Since there's no proper page builder but all ACF field groups, presented via custom templates, perhaps for design and content, I think you should check with ACF guides (as mentioned earlier) if everything is being synced correctly?
- On top of everything, your theme is a custom theme, which is really out of scope of this forum. And I can not assess if the code is really handling things well.
I'll advise that if you can demonstrate the above mentioned issue with a default theme, WPML + ST + ACF and ACFML, then of course we can see if this is really on WPML.
To further strengthen my case, I created another page based on Homepage template hidden link:
- If you open it for editing and compare with frontend (even in default language), I can't see what I added in the page. Like I added all sections with various information, but on frontend lot of is missing. Specially:
--- Intro and Our Products are missing the content.
--- Our Sales is showing entirely different content.
--- Featured is breaking in the beginning that rest of it, Testimonials and Resources sections are missing altogether, including footer.
So the French translation (hidden link) which has the same design but missing almost everything.
This looks like that everything is heavily customized and theme dependent.
I've checked the homepage-test and again the sections below the hero are missing.
- PT: hidden link
- FR: hidden link
I've also checked the test with homepage template, and most of the missing content is due to not added links, which are required for the content to be displayed. However, the same issue with the missing sections occurred when I tried to translate it into Portuguese.
hidden link hidden link hidden link
I've tried to delete the Homepage and its translations and recreate it, but the same issue occurs when I try to translate the newly recreated page into Portuguese.
I've also tried to change the theme to default, but as soon I change it the same issue occurs to the Portuguese Homepage, and the sections disappear.
I've created a new Test page with a simple Test template, that just dumps the content of each section, as flexible content with layout sections cannot be used/displayed with a default theme. I've also added one layout section with a simple text field and did not make any translations to the page. Minimum custom code was used.
You can check it here - hidden link
You can manage it from here - hidden link
Let me know if you were able to replicate the issue and made any progress.
I translated that page to French and Portuguese and can see the text translated:
- hidden link
- hidden link
So apparently it seems to work fine.
The problem with your original page, I am still convinced about that heavily customized coding which probably needs to be taken with great care.
Unfortunately support for custom coding is out of scope of this forum.
However, WPML offers filters and action hooks that can be used in your WordPress theme or plugin to provide correct multilingual support. Browse following resources for more information:
I've managed to recreate the issue using the Default Twenty Twenty-Four theme (moved the simple Test template and the layout section to a child theme, so there is minimum custom code and keeping the default theme as clean as possible), and the ACF fields from the custom theme. Here are links to the pages:
EN: hidden link hidden link
FR: hidden link hidden link
PT: hidden link hidden link
Could you please check them, so we can be sure the issue is not something else related?
I think the problem is fixed now. Actually the "field-page_section-0" (intro) was being translated to Portuguese in ATE, while for French it was same as English (intro).
So I fixed the translation and PT page is working fine now too: hidden link
Could you give some more in-depth info on what causes the translation in the ATE of the flexible content layout names? And is there any way to prevent it, so I can be sure the same issue will not occur again?
Well actually there's no particular reason for that because ATE just translates.
Usually ATE 'll not translate some special content like CSS, JS, HTML, JSON, IDs and etc. But as long as a word or string is a proper word in a language, it tries to translate (in case of automatic translation).
So if you're sending your content for automatic translation, once it is completed, you can edit the translation manually in ATE (by clicking the pencil icon). And in ATE, you can change the translation of such words (those field names in this case) back to what's suitable (same as default language in this case).
