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

Problem:
The client is attempting to translate an article using WPML but encounters an issue where some text elements remain in English because they are not available for translation. The client questions why some core blocks are not available for translation and how to ensure all text elements are translated.
Solution:
We recommend the following steps to ensure all text elements are picked up and translated:
1. Send the page for translation or update the existing translation:
* Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard in your WordPress admin.
* Use the filters to find your article.
If the issue persists, it might be due to the use of emojis or specific characters that are not supported by the current database collation. In such cases, changing the database collation to "utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci" might resolve the issue. Additionally, consider manual translation for pages with complex designs or frequent changes, as detailed in our documentation on using different translation editors for different pages.

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

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This topic contains 16 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by beatS-3 5 months, 1 week ago.

Assisted by: Kor.

Author Posts
November 19, 2025 at 8:50 pm #17593523

Kor

Thanks for your patience. I will have to escalate this to our 2nd Tier Support for further assistance. I will come back to you once I've feedback.

November 20, 2025 at 1:54 pm #17595932

Kor

Thanks for your patience. I have some feedback and our 2nd Tier Support suggested changing the collation to "utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci". Could you change it and retry? Let me know if the issue persists.

November 20, 2025 at 3:21 pm #17596294

beatS-3

Dear Kor, thanks again for looking into it.

As suspected, the issue came from mixed table collations. The WordPress helper maybe_convert_table_to_utf8mb4() didn’t change anything because it’s very conservative and stops as soon as it encounters inconsistent or legacy collations — which were present due to the older site migrated via Updraft.

For some reason, I overlooked the second bit of the tutorial you sent to me 🙈

I ended up diving into phpMyAdmin and created queries that altered all tables. Now it's working perfectly! The plugin would've worked, too, I guess.. Sorry about that.

All the best!