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1) The previous solutions did used to work temporarily, but now I can't even enable WPML without it bringing my whole site down. I truncated the wp_icl_background_task before enabling the plugin but it had no effect.
2) I will duplicate the live website to our staging server and get you access ASAP.
3) I can't get you the WPML debug information from the live server without enabling the plugin which breaks the website. What I have done is get that information from my laptop version of the site that has identical plugins and WordPress version. I hope that helps somewhat?
Please make a full backup of your site (files and database) and confirm it in your next reply.
If possible please provide access to the staging website, not production.
Please note, that I might need to do some debugging procedures like enable/disable plugins, switch themes, change the default language of the user account, and/or access your website database to debug the issue furtherly.
I will share with you any changes or steps done in this process. Please let me know if you do not agree with the above or if I do not have your permission for any.
I would need to access both your site's wp-admin and FTP account, if possible.
I have enabled the private username and password fields in your next reply.
I suggest you create a new user, set it as an administrator and then add those credentials in the private fields mentioned.
You can safely add your information into these fields.
thanks, but FTP is also needed so I can disable it again if it brings the site down, to check debug log, DB and etc.
I also need to disable all other plugins and the must-use plugin folder to confirm this issue is not being caused by some 3rd party/custom plugin or theme.
I think that will limit our debugging work because if the website goes down when WPML is enabled, there is no way for me to disable it again via FTP and check further.
Please disable all other plugins, including must use plugins, and switch to WP default theme.
Let us know how it goes, and if no luck maybe we can take a copy and test it further on our servers with FTP access and etc.
I appreciate it's not easy for you to help without full access.
I switched to 2021 theme, deactivated all plugins and mu-plugins and reactivated WPML. It does activate but takes 2mins to activate. On our live server this will time out sooner because it hits the Cloudflare timeout.
I did notice on activation is complains about this "WPML plugin cannot connect to wpml.org"
Do you know how long you're waiting to connect to wpml.org in your code? Could this be causing the long delay in activating or perhaps it's doing something else instead.
I just carried out the following troubleshooting actions and deactivated and reactivated WPML but it still took 2 mins to activate:
- Clear the cache WPML
- Remove ghost entires from the translation tables
- Fix element_type collation
- Fix WPML tables collation
The 2021 theme doesn't initiated any of the custom post types used in my clients so I would have thought WPML would activate quickly.
1) WPML can not connect message is not related to this, but to checkup of your license, not important now for this issue.
2) I checked and it is weird that it takes so much to activate and that you have such big tables, it could be related to this. Do you know why do you have so big tables? As I see you do not have that many posts or translations on your website.
3) Also can you allow my user to install and switch themes so I can check with 2021. I can not install plugins, so there is some custom code here that is still causing differences and maybe other issues.
4) Is it okay to take a copy of your website to debug further on our side?
Sorry I thought you had permission to change themes. I've give you that power now.
There is no code preventing you from add/removing plugins, there are strict file permissions on the server to prevent this. If you need a plugin added, let me know.
RE wp_posts table: Our client has requested that we don't give you access to all the custom post types in the theme. So it may appear like there aren't many posts, but there are. There are also lot of Woocommere Subscriptions and 273,683 attachment post types in wp_posts table.
I've set up access to the error log if that's helpful hidden link
thanks for getting back. I can now switch the theme but still can not install any new plugins.
Please note there is a possibility we can not do much here since we do not clear picture of your website content and full access + FTP, best I can do is guess that since your tables are that big it takes some time when WPML is activated to read the theme and fetch correct language data about the posts and its translation.
I do not see anymore WPML causing your website to be down when activated, but if it still happens I advise checking for any server log on this (maybe timeout) or any SQL queries that are causing such long load.
I appreciate how hard it is for you to help, however I have asked what plugins you wish to add to the site and you didn't reply.
You mention the large database having an impact on WPML activation time but you haven't told me what WPML tries to do on activation? You said "Read the theme and fetch correct language data about the posts and its translation". Can you explain this better? It is checking every post?
Currently I am unable to activate your plugin in production because it takes longer than the 30 second Cloudflare timeout.
2) As for WPML, it doesn't read all of your posts but related WPML data, so each of your posts and etc has its WPML connection to 2nd language posts. WPML goes over WPML tables and reads them so it can show correct language information and connections. If you need further explanation I can check for further with our 2nd tiers, but for now, I would like to check and confirm if this is causing the issue via query monitor.
