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[Escalated to 2nd Tier] Translated pages showing mixed language (EN + PT-BR) and unexpected content changes after template u...
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We are experiencing a critical issue with our translated pages (PT-BR) where content is now appearing partially in English and partially in Portuguese.
Issue description
On multiple translated pages, we are seeing:
Sections correctly translated into Portuguese
Other sections still appearing in English
In some cases, content appears inconsistent or duplicated
Example page: hidden link hidden link
What we observe
The page was previously 100% translated into Portuguese
After recent updates (including template changes), the same page now shows mixed language content
The issue is not isolated; multiple translated pages are affected
In the editor, content appears fragmented across different fields/blocks
Some sections seem to come from the original English version
Additional technical observation
We also identified that:
There is a canonical tag correctly generated by Yoast SEO
However, an additional canonical referencing the English version appears within the page content itself
This suggests that some content or blocks may be inherited or incorrectly reused across languages
Environment
Theme: Newspaper (TagDiv)
WPML active (EN + PT-BR)
Yoast SEO Premium
WP Rocket + Cloudflare
Pages built using TagDiv builder elements / structured blocks
Context
Mixed-language output
Previously translated pages no longer render correctly
Questions
Could WPML fallback behavior or template inheritance cause translated pages to partially load content from the default language?
How can we identify which parts of the page are being pulled from the English version instead of the Portuguese translation?
What is the safest way to restore these pages to their fully translated state without losing existing translations?
Are TagDiv Cloud Templates and builder blocks fully compatible with WPML translation workflows, or do they require specific configuration?
How can we prevent this issue from happening again when updating templates?
We are happy to provide access or additional examples if needed.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi,
do you have a staging environment where I can take a look?
I would eventually also need to request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to your site
– preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible –
in order to be of better help and check if some configurations might need to be changed
Your next answer will be private which means only you and I have access to it.
❌ Please backup your database and website ❌
✙ I would additionally need your permission to de-activate and re-activate Plugins and the Theme, and to change configurations on the site. This is also a reason the backup is really important.
✙ Please add the Links to the […] Edit Screen, the Page/Post where you insert the […] and the corresponding Front End Page/Screen
Following up on my previous message, I have now also included the staging environment access details (URL, WP-Admin, and FTP credentials).
Please let me know if you are able to log in successfully.
There may be security restrictions on the staging environment that could block access based on location. If you run into any issues, I can whitelist your IP address. Just send it over, and I’ll take care of it.
A few additional notes for context:
The staging environment may be slightly outdated compared to the live site
However, it should still provide a reliable baseline to compare behavior and identify what may have changed
We believe this could help isolate whether the issue is related to recent updates (templates, WPML behavior, or other configurations)
As mentioned earlier, we have already manually corrected several affected pages, particularly those where only a small percentage of the content was no longer translated. These pages are now fully resolved.
It may still be useful to check logs or revision history to understand what caused the partial fallback or content mixing, as this issue affected multiple pages simultaneously.
If you need any additional examples, specific templates, or further assistance from my side, feel free to let me know.
Looking forward to your findings and guidance on how we can prevent this from happening again.
Hi Marcel, I see I didn't add the FTP login, but I can't edit the private message. Can you share it again so I can share the FTP login credentials in private?
I wanted to share an additional example to help illustrate the issue further:
Example page (EN): hidden link
We’ve noticed something quite inconsistent in WPML Translation Management:
Many of these pages were previously 100% translated
Now, their status varies unexpectedly:
Some show only 1% translated
Others show partial completion (e.g. 80–90%)
In a few cases, pages appear as if they were never translated at all
This does not align with the actual work done earlier, as these pages were fully completed before.
We also confirmed internally that some pages have already been manually corrected again by our team, but there are still many affected pages remaining.
From what we observe:
The issue seems to affect multiple pages at once
Translation fields appear fragmented or partially reset
Some content is likely being pulled from the default language again
This makes us suspect a possible issue with:
WPML translation status synchronization
Builder content (TagDiv blocks) not correctly mapped per language
Or fallback behavior overriding existing translations
If helpful, you can also check the translation editor view (screenshot attached), where you can see incomplete segments that were previously translated.
Please let us know:
What could cause translation completion percentages to drop like this
Whether this could be related to recent updates (WPML, theme, or templates)
And the safest way to restore consistency across all affected pages without losing existing translations
I hope this gives you the access needed to properly investigate the issue.
To be transparent, we are actively updating and correcting the affected translated posts on our side due to the impact this issue is having on our rankings and other parts of the website. As you can understand, we cannot leave these pages in their current state for too long.
I hope this does not interfere too much with your investigation, but at the moment, it is necessary for us to continue fixing the affected content where possible.
At this stage, what matters most to us is understanding how this could have happened. This is not about assigning blame but about identifying the cause so we can prevent the same issue from happening again.
I would very much appreciate hearing what you find during your investigation. Also, if there is any possibility of recovering or restoring the remaining untranslated or partially reset items, that would be extremely valuable. You should still be able to see in the translation list that some entries dropped back to 1%, 2%, or other very low completion percentages.
Please let me know if you need anything further from my side.
I added two links that show the problem more clearly. On the live website, the full pages still appear translated, but when we open them in the editor, the translated content is no longer there.
As you know, we are still translating and updating less important pages. However, I would really like to recover these missing translations if possible, so I hope this helps you investigate the issue further.
Also, the staging environment is from 2 February, so I believe most of these errors were not present there yet. It could be useful to check whether that data can help identify the cause or recover the missing translations.
If that is a possible route, please let me know. In that case, we will stop updating the other articles for now.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi Ivo,
It looks like you’ve granted me access to the live stage. Based on the information provided so far, there isn’t much I can investigate, especially since any changes made directly there modify the database entries, leaving us without a reliable way to trace the issue.
That said, your last message included a helpful example to review. It appears this may be related to a known issue, and I’m currently waiting for confirmation from our devs.
In the meantime, I recommend creating a Duplicator package and downloading it. This will allow you to apply fixes manually so we can continue testing either locally or on a cloned environment.
Our hosting team has now confirmed that a staging environment is fully set up and synchronized 1:1 with the live site.
Given this setup, I wanted to check with you before proceeding further:
Would working directly on the staging environment be sufficient for your investigation, or do you still require a full Duplicator package?
The staging site mirrors the live configuration and content, so in principle it should provide the same conditions for testing without affecting production.
Please let me know what you prefer so we can move forward efficiently.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi,
Please note that we can only address the issue reported in this ticket. Since your response was sent as a private reply, I’m unable to split it into a separate ticket due to limitations of the forum system.
At the moment, I don’t see any connection to a previous case. Could you please create a new ticket and include the relevant history and full details you are referring to? Currently, I’m not able to identify any related case indicating that you are waiting for a fix.
Additionally, please note that you have only provided FTP access, but not site access. Therefore, I will reactivate the input fields.
We are currently experiencing an issue with missing translated content on our website using WPML (Portuguese – /pt-br/).
Issue Overview
Several translated URLs are returning 404 errors. Examples:
/pt-br/tdc-review/great-signals/
/pt-br/tdc-review/flavia/
/pt-br/tdc-review/withdrawal-successful-completed/
What We Observed
The original (default language – English) content exists and is accessible
The Portuguese (pt-br) translations appear to be missing or disconnected
These URLs are still being generated or referenced on the site
They are also appearing in Google Search Console and are possibly still included in the sitemap
Technical Context
The affected content belongs to a custom post type: tdc-review
We are using WPML for translations
We are also using TagDiv Composer (TDC), which may still be referencing these URLs via templates or blocks
We recently experienced WPML-related translation issues, which may have caused this
Are there known issues with WPML and custom post types like tdc-review that could cause this behavior?
What is the safest way to clean up these broken translated URLs while maintaining SEO integrity?
When will all the issues be solved?
Ticket with our support:
Hi Ivo,
The tdc-review content is a custom post type. After checking the situation, it appears that these review posts currently exist only in the default (English) language and do not have corresponding translations in Portuguese (pt-br). This is why those URLs are returning 404 errors. they simply don’t exist for the secondary language.
This is likely related to the recent issues you experienced with WPML translations, where some translated content may have been lost or disconnected.
To resolve this, you have two options:
- recreate or retranslate the missing reviews
- restore the Portuguese (pt-br) versions of these review posts so the URLs become valid again.
Clean up and update indexing
- remove or exclude these non-existent translated URLs from your sitemap (ensure it reflects only available translations via WPML).
- request reindexing in Google Search Console for the affected URLs.
Since the number of URLs is relatively small, this can be handled manually.
Kind regards,
Alex
Kind regards Ivo
New threads created by Marcel and linked to this one are listed below:
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi Ivo,
thank you for the detailed update.
The issue you’re describing here (404 errors on translated tdc-review URLs and missing translations) is different from the original problem in this ticket, which focuses on mixed-language content and translation inconsistencies.
To ensure we can properly investigate and track both issues, I created a new ticket for that. This will allow us to handle it separately and provide a more focused analysis.
