This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem:
The client was experiencing issues with WPML on their website after changing settings in WPML Settings >> Post Types Translation from 'Translatable - use translation if available or fallback to default language' to 'Translatable - only show translated items'. This resulted in translated content not being visible on the frontend, even after switching the settings back and clearing the cache.
Solution:
We identified that the issue was related to the interaction between WPML and the Elementor plugin. The translations were only displaying correctly when Elementor was active.
We also discovered that the translation packages necessary for WPML to function properly with page builders like Elementor were missing. We recommended restoring a backup of the site from before these packages were deleted to troubleshoot the issue effectively.
Further assistance and updates were provided through the WPML support forum thread: WPML support forum thread.
Please note that this solution might be outdated or not applicable to your specific case.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 issue persists, please open a new support ticket for further assistance.
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More than this - I have switched from <Translatable only show translated items> to <use translation if available or fallback to default language> and back; now even the few elements that had visible translation are not working anymore
Welcome to the WPML support forum. I will do my best to assist you in resolving the issue.
Please share the exact steps to reproduce the issue on your site. It would also be very helpful if you could provide a couple of screenshots or a screencast to help us understand the issue better.
On hidden link I did the following modification - on WPML Settings -> Post Types Translation I have changed the pages from Translatable
use translation if available or fallback to default language to Translatable
only show translated items. After that, I was not able to see the translated content (hidden link) at all on frontend, only inside ATE. Swiched option back did not fix the issue. Cache was deleted.
Thank you for the updates. I was able to reproduce the issue on hidden link, and it still exists after the initial checks.
Therefore, please confirm if there are any server-side caching mechanisms in place. If so, clear all caches and check whether the issue persists.
If the problem remains, please allow me to create a copy of your site using the Duplicator plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/). This will help us debug the issue safely on a local server without affecting your live or staging environments.
There are not any server-side caching mechanisms in place. Also we allow using duplicator in order to create a copy of the website. Please let me know if I can help with something.
We are still working on this issue. At the moment, the content is only displaying the translation correctly when the Elementor plugin is active. We are currently exploring possible workarounds and will get back to you as soon as we have an update. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for the updates. We are still working on this issue and were able to reproduce the same behavior on our local copy. The issue does not occur when Elementor is inactive.
Please confirm if the site was previously translated manually using the WordPress Editor or with the WPML Classic Translation Editor? We noticed that the translation packages (WPML >> Packages) are missing for most pages, including the Homepage, on both the live and staging sites.
Please refer to the attached images for more details, and let us know your feedback.
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