[Resolved] Split: question mark start duplication proces
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client experienced an issue where clicking a tooltip in WPML settings unexpectedly triggered the duplication of media entries across all languages, which led to nearly reaching the account limit on their Offload Media account due to each duplicated entry being counted as a separate item. Solution: We confirmed that this behavior, while unexpected, is part of WPML's design to manage translated media metadata per language without duplicating the physical media files on the server. We suggested: 1. Verifying with the Offload Media/S3 plugin authors whether the counting of translated entries as separate items is expected or a bug. 2. Opening a separate support ticket with us regarding the S3/media counting issue for further investigation. 3. As immediate remedies, the client could either restore a backup from before the action was triggered or continue removing the unnecessary translated attachment entries from the Media Library.
If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. If further assistance is needed, please 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.
1. Disabling WPML → Settings → Media Translation > Translate Media Library texts...
This action would remove all the medias from the translation screen.
That's not relevant, for 2 reasons:
- My translators won't be able to translate the medias anymore. It doesn't apply only to the Elementor legacy medias (which I want to remove, but also to the medias currently embedded in the Gutenberg content (which I'd like to keep showing up in the translation screens. Those I actually need to get translated, and are already translated for the vast majority of them.
- It doesn't really fix/clean anything, since it doesn't detach the medias from the post (what the database operation I provided actually does...). It only *hides* them from the translation screen.
2. Turn off also Automatically detect best options for translating image texts
This option has never been enabled in my case, since nothing explains what it actually does.
Now the best part.
Exploring the settings, I noticed the attached section.
Since I didn't understand what is described, I clicked the question mark after: "Duplicate texts (alt, caption, title) for all media to all languages"
...which actually started the whole process!
When clicking a question mark tooltip is meant to actually launch action, for the whole table?!
What did just happen? Did I just erase my translation?!
I have confirmed and escalated further this bug because the current behavior/UI seems confusing and potentially problematic.
The action should not delete translations/content. It is intended to copy/synchronize media metadata texts (ALT text, captions, titles, descriptions) from the default language to translated media entries.
Could you please check in Media Library by switching languages from the top admin bar and verify whether translated media texts were actually overwritten?
From my understanding, it should ideally only fill translations for media items that do not already have translated texts, and not overwrite existing translated values.
I checked the media library.
What actually happened, is that it duplicated ALL the medias, in to ALL the existing languages, from the lowest to the highest media ID, where they are not supposed to appear (and where we specifically didn't want them to appear, not to crowd the media library where crawling it).
Untill I stopped it. Which makes about 300 medias, in +/- 10 languages.
On top of that, our Offload Media account counts the media, whatever the duplication.
So as a consequence of this bug, our media listing now almost reaches the account limit.
This is expected behavior from WPML side even without the action you did, but WPML does not duplicate media files.
WPML duplicates media entries across languages in the database, so WPML can manage translated media metadata per language. However, this does not duplicate the actual physical image files on the server. It mainly creates translated attachment entries/meta in the database.
You can confirm this by checking your uploads folder directly and comparing the actual number of files there.
Regarding the S3/Offload Media count, if the plugin is treating these translated entries as fully separate media items and counting them against your limit, that would be related to how the Offload Media integration and might be a bug. As far I remember this was not the case on our testing in previous S3 ticket, and uploads where handeled correctly.
- first checking with the Offload Media/S3 plugin authors whether this counting behavior is expected or a bug
- opening a separate ticket for us specifically about the S3/media counting issue, so we can investigate compatibility/integration behavior further from our side as well
At the moment, from WPML perspective, the database-level media duplication itself is expected behavior and S3 duplication was not the case before.
- "WPML does not duplicate media files."
Indeed, but that's not the point.
The point is that I manage a library for 12 languages.
Many of the images have no use in most languages. And I don't want all those images not used in some languages to be accessible from those language library. Indeed, it's much much easier to crawl, and identify an image in a 100 items library, than 2,000. I need to keep it tidy, and make all medias accessible in all languages is absolutely not what I expected when clicking that question mark.
- S3 account
Offload Medias bills based on the number of attachments. So each media ID is an item. Since the duplicated medias have their own media ID, each of them is absolutely added to the total offloaded medias. So 1 image in the library, reachable from 4 languages = 4 offloaded media items. That's the way it's been working for years.
As a proof, I NEVER receive any notification from Offload Media. Couple of minutes after I clicked that question mark, I received an Offload Media warning email, informing me I was close to reach the limit. This morning after having removed many pointlessly duplicated images, I could notice that count got lower. So if that's not clear to you, it's probably unclear for your users as well, so you can update your documentation.
What you are describing is actually the expected WPML setup and behavior.In your case, you were using a different approach/workflow where media was intentionally kept more separated between languages.
I do agree though that the question mark/action should not have triggered this so and unexpectedly. I already reported this bug internally because I understand why the behavior was confusing and not what you expected.
From our side, the best recommendation at this point would be either:
- restore a backup from before the action was triggered, or
- continue removing the translated attachment entries you do not need from the Media Library.
I am sorry for the trouble and confusion this caused in your workflow.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can help with regarding this case and I will do my best to help.
