This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: You are working on a multilingual website using WPML, with Greek as the default language and Bulgarian as a secondary language. You've translated most pages into Bulgarian, but several pages are stuck in an incorrect translation status. Specifically, some Bulgarian translations display a gear icon, indicating they are "assigned to a local translator", despite being fully translated. After saving, these translations still show as incomplete, and you cannot reset or create new translations. Solution: We have identified that the issue is due to incorrect database entries. Here's how we recommend you resolve this: 1. Access your database and navigate to the
wp_postmeta
table. 2. Search for entries with the meta key
icl_lang_duplicate_of
and remove them. 3. In the
icl_translations
table, remove entries where
element_id
is set to
NULL
. Before proceeding, ensure you back up your database for safety. If you're not comfortable performing these steps, or if the issue persists, please visit our support forum at WPML Support Forum for further assistance.
Please note that this solution might be outdated or not applicable to your specific case. 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 the problem continues, do not hesitate to open a new support ticket.
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I am currently working on a multilingual website using WPML, where Greek is the default language and Bulgarian is one of the secondary languages.
I have successfully translated most of the pages into Bulgarian. However, I am facing a persistent issue with several pages that appear to be stuck in an incorrect translation status.
Specifically:
When viewing the pages in Greek (default language), some Bulgarian translations display a gear icon, indicating that they are "assigned to a local translator".
When I open these translations, I can see that the content is 100% translated and complete.
Despite this, after clicking "Save & Close", the translation is still marked as incomplete and continues to show the gear icon.
I have already attempted to cancel translation jobs via Translation Management, but the issue persists.
As a result, I am unable to reset these translations or create new ones (the "+" icon does not appear).
What I would like to achieve:
I would like to completely remove/reset these problematic Bulgarian translations (the ones showing the gear icon), so that I can recreate them from scratch and ensure proper functionality.
Could you please advise on:
How to fully delete or reset these stuck translations?
How to remove any remaining assignment or job status linked to them?
Whether this issue is related to WPML Translation Management conflicts or a known bug?
This issue is affecting key pages, including the homepage, and prevents proper workflow and publishing.
Thank you in advance for your support.
I am currently working on a multilingual website using WPML, where Greek is the default language and Bulgarian is one of the secondary languages.
I have successfully translated most of the pages into Bulgarian. However, I am facing a persistent issue with several pages that appear to be stuck in an incorrect translation status.
Specifically:
When viewing the pages in Greek (default language), some Bulgarian translations display a gear icon, indicating that they are "assigned to a local translator".
When I open these translations, I can see that the content is 100% translated and complete.
Despite this, after clicking "Save" or "Save & Close", the translation is still marked as incomplete and continues to show the gear icon.
I have already attempted to cancel translation jobs via Translation Management, but the issue persists.
As a result, I am unable to reset these translations or create new ones (the "+" icon does not appear).
What I would like to achieve:
I would like to completely remove/reset these problematic Bulgarian translations (the ones showing the gear icon), so that I can recreate them from scratch and ensure proper functionality.
Could you please advise on:
How to fully delete or reset these stuck translations?
How to remove any remaining assignment or job status linked to them?
Whether this issue is related to WPML Translation Management conflicts or a known bug?
This issue is affecting key pages, including the homepage, and prevents proper workflow and publishing.
Thank you for contacting WPML support. I'd be happy to assist you on this issue.
Can you provide me few pages where the issue exists so I can debug this further?
To debug this issue further, I would need to check your site settings once, for this I would need temporary access (wp-admin and ftp) to your site.
So could you please provide me with those details, you will find the needed fields for this below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply. hidden link
I created the translation from the original pagew in the WP environment and now I need help to connect them to the original pages. I have that issue only with 3 of the 26 pages. All the others seems to work and connect correctly.
In one page I see the "Connect with translations" button but I can't find the page I want to link to. Even some other pages have the rong language indicator *pic 11
At the other 2 pages there is no other choises at the drop down for the language (it is written the correct though) and there is no option to connect with translations ... *pic 12
If a page already has existing translations or duplicates, the Connect with translations option will not appear. It is only available when there are no translations in progress and a similar post exists.
In this case, please ensure that all posts you want to connect do not have any in-progress or existing translations before attempting to link them.
I have already spent an enormous amount of time trying to solve this and I am honestly exhausted and desperate at this point. None of the options you mentioned are available on my installation — there is no disconnect option, no connect option, no “Connect with Translations”, and I cannot see any “in progress” or “existing translations”.
I have already removed items from pending translation jobs and tried excluding them, but the page I want to connect still does not appear as an available translation. I have spent countless hours working together with AI assistance, following instructions step by step, and still nothing works correctly.
At this stage, I genuinely do not know what has gone wrong with the WPML installation or translation relationships. The situation has become incredibly frustrating. What makes it even more difficult is that support is happening across a time difference, which makes troubleshooting painfully slow and extremely difficult to coordinate.
Honestly, this has become a very exhausting and discouraging experience.
I can provide credentials to the admin panel to do what it has to be done as I did with another support member.
I have already spent an enormous amount of time trying to solve this and I am honestly exhausted and desperate at this point. None of the options you mentioned are available on my installation — there is no disconnect option, no connect option, no “Connect with Translations”, and I cannot see any “in progress” or “existing translations”.
I have already removed items from pending translation jobs and tried excluding them, but the page I want to connect still does not appear as an available translation. I have spent countless hours working together with AI assistance, following instructions step by step, and still nothing works correctly.
At this stage, I genuinely do not know what has gone wrong with the WPML installation or translation relationships. The situation has become incredibly frustrating. What makes it even more difficult is that support is happening across a time difference of many hours, which makes troubleshooting painfully slow and extremely difficult to coordinate.
I want to provide the credentials of the site to an expert to see what I am talking about and help me accordingly.
Honestly, this has become a very exhausting and discouraging experience.
The issue requires proper debugging, as I can see that on newly created pages the option to connect appears correctly, while it is missing on the existing ones.
I am currently installing the Duplicator plugin to investigate this further and reproduce the issue on my side.
I will update you here once I have more information.
Duplicator doesn't work on your site, so, To get a better understanding, I suggest sharing a backup of your wp-content folder and your database. You can zip the files and send them to me via Google Drive. With these, I can set up a local copy of your site and take a closer look at the issue.
I managed to replicate the issue, and it appears to be caused by incorrect database entries that may not have been deleted properly. There are multiple duplicate front-page entries, which are creating the issue.
To fix this, I performed the following steps on the database:
* In the `wp_postmeta` table, I searched for entries with the meta key `icl_lang_duplicate_of` and removed them.
* In the `icl_translations` table, I removed entries where `element_id` was set to `NULL`.
I would need your permission to perform these steps on your live site. I will also need to install a database plugin to complete the cleanup process.
Before granting access, please make sure to create a fresh database backup for safety.
Let me know once the backup is completed and I can proceed.
