Our devs took a look. And despite we couldn't replicate the issue, in the next WPML release, there will be an extra guard when deleting translated attachments to restrict remove file from filesystem.
We think this should solve the issue.
When WPML 4.8.3 is available, please give it a try. ❌ Please make a full website backup before proceeding ❌
I am already restricting the files being deleted (on my live system) by unchecking the "Delete translations when deleting a post" option.
But there is still the issue of the 'original' language of the image being changed from English to Danish for some images and the 'copied' status being incorrectly applied, when there is no actual copy
(as per my reply on October 6)
It is not workable like that.
Did you want me to open a new support ticket for that?
I feel that they are the same issue, with the incorrect 'copied' status being the precursor to the image being deleted.
Yes please, open a new ticket for this issue. This will keep things more clear. I am not sure if it's related, and I think that the solution that will be implemented does not address that scenario, but only prevents the file deletion.
The image that got deleted was not an image that had been recently uploaded. It was already used in a different page
I added it to a test page and translated the page
I've attached an image of the media translation screen for that image prior to it's deletion.
Note that although a db entry existed in both Danish and English for that image - it does not show as 'copied media' Is that correct???
I've attached an image of two of the other images in the page (that were not deleted) and I see that the do have 'copied media' next to them.
* where is the 'copied media' status saved in the database?
Also attached is the screen shot of the ate translation screen during translation
The physical file wasn't actually deleted so the new code IS stopping the file delete
BUT
ALL DB entries for the image were deleted, so although the file was still there, in the media screen it wasn't showing the image as there is no DB entry in either language.
The image shows correctly on the front-end in the page as the physical file is still there.
These are the database records that were there for that image prior to the translation in the icl-translations table
My activity log recorded the delete of the entry for the post-id 8703 but not for the entry for post-id 8702 (I assume that one was removed using SQL code rather than a WordPress function)
It seems I can now reliably reproduce the above (i.e DB entries being deleted)
If the image DOES NOT have 'copied media' as the 'Media Type' on the media translation screen but does have a DB entry for both English and Danish then adding that image to an English page and translating it to Danish causes the DB entries to be deleted. (and hence is flagging the file for deletion. The file obviously not being deleted now because of the updated code)
It would be helpful to know where in the database the 'copied media' status is saved.
Thanks for all the testing and the detailed explanation. I've sent your report to our second tier support. I'll get back to you as soon as I have a reply.
One of our devs is already taking care of this and preparing a fix to include in 4.8.4. I shared your insights from the other ticket so it's taken into account.
As mentioned, we are aiming for a fix in the next version, I'll keep you posted.
