Background of the issue:
We are maintaining a multilingual site (hidden link) using WPML. Most of our pages were fully translated and showing correctly before. The site uses a mix of standard page content, custom sections built with ACF, and a page builder.
Symptoms:
We’ve noticed this issue multiple times:
Some translated pages suddenly appear empty, even though the original version still has full content.
On other pages, only certain sections remain visible — for example, a FAQ block might still appear while the rest of the page content is gone.
In some cases, text formatting breaks — for example, a hyperlink merges into the next word or line breaks disappear, making the text look incorrect.
This doesn’t always happen immediately — sometimes a page displays fine at first, then appears blank or partially empty after an update.
Questions:
Why does translated content sometimes go missing or become incomplete?
Is there a known reason (for example, a sync issue, settings conflict, or workflow step that can cause this)?
How can we make sure that translations always stay fully in sync with the original page?
Is there a recommended setting or best practice we should follow to avoid losing content in translated pages when we update the original?
In that case, if you see content completely translated but still does not appear on frontend as expected, can you confirm if a completed translation is published? I mean not in draft or pending review state?
If later is the case, can you try approving the review and try publishing it?
If that's not the case, can you provide links and screenshots (or better a screen-recording) of the problem, for better understanding.
Yes, all translated pages were published, but when visited on the frontend, the contents (of all locales except the original English one) were missing. I tried clicking Edit Translation, and then I got redirected to the WPML translation editor. But when I clicked Save, a pop-up showed that I need to go to WPML>Translation Management. I forgot what was the exact message, but it was saying something like, "You need to go to the WP Dashboard for the translation to get published". I then visited Translation Management, but the page I tried to edit was not showing that it was queued, but instead as completed. But when visited on the front end, that page remains empty without translated content.
To translate it, I have to edit each of the translated pages, edit the translation priority to Required, and only then will it get translated. But this is not effective as I'd need to edit each post when it should be automated, isn't it?
This is so weird because the content, once being translated has appeared on the site. Then sporadically, it is sometimes removed. It's happened numerous times. Where the content just vanishes, and we have heaps of content missing. sometimes it affects one language, sometimes all, sometimes some, also it sometimes only affects parts of the translation and we will have sections there translated, and sections missing.
I need a permanent solution for this. Automatic translation is already set to "Publish without review". I am already using Advanced Translation Editor. I don't know what was wrong with my configuration.
1) Take a full backup of your site and database before proceeding. It is highly advised to try these on a dev or staging site first, so your live site isn't compromised.
2) Try these troubleshooting options and recheck. If issue continues to appear, then please continue with the following.
3) Deactivate all plugins except WPML and String Translation.
4) Switch to a standard theme like 2024 or 2021.
5) Check for the issue if it still happens? If it does, then stop here and let me know. Otherwise please continue with the following.
6) Then start activating plugins one by one while keep checking for the issue. This way you 'll be able to pinpoint a conflict when & where it starts creating the problem.
7) If after activating all plugins you see that it still works fine, then switch to your theme and see if that's causing it.
Please let me know your findings and I'll try my best to help you further on the matter.
The topic ‘[Closed] Translated page content missing or partially empty’ is closed to new replies.
