I am trying to: Upgrade WPML before WordPress 6.1, as per your newsletter instructions.
Link to a page where the issue can be seen: The WPML "Commercial" plugins tab in WP Admin.
I expected to see: The various component to match the new version available, that is 4.5.12.
Instead, I got: Nothing happens. As you can see in the screenshot, WPML found newer versions, yet it keeps re-downloading and re-activating (see "updated and activated" labels) the same old version (4.5.10) again and again.
In a past ticket, I got told to download manually everything again.
But is it admissible that I have to take down my website every time? Why can't the upgrade be made less convoluted and made to just work?
It's now 2-3 *years* I have this issue.
Welcome to the WPML support forum. My name is Nicolas and I will be happy to help you today.
Let's start by fixing the issue specific to WP 6.1 and then we can investigate why you're always having issues when updating WPML.
1. On Monday we released a newsletter and a blog post announcing that WordPress 6.1 introduces critical, breaking issues with WPML and String Translation and we released new versions (WPML 4.5.12 and String Translation 3.2.3) to address this issue: https://wpml.org/changelog/2022/10/wpml-4-5-12-updates-for-wordpress-6-1/
Then install these versions manually, either through your WP dashboard (if possible) or through FTP (or Cpanel): hidden link
2. I'm sorry to hear that you have a bad experience every time you try to update WPML. Let's look into it.
As we saw in point #1 if you're having difficulties to update your plugins from the dashboard you can manually download all our plugins in your WPML account.
- Go to https://wpml.org/account/downloads/
- Click on "Download WPML manually" to see all plugins and download them
- In your WP dashboard, go to "Plugins > Add new" and use the button at the top of your screen to upload the .zip file
Also, could you please give me more details? Is it always the same issue? Do you have an error message such as "The Link You Followed Has Expired"?
I'm asking because I've noticed that your max upload limit is 12M and WPML is 12.2M, so if you try to upload a plugin that is larger than the 12M limit, you will receive this error message.
Here is an good article from Math Rank that should help you solve that issue (if that's the issue you're having): hidden link
However the issue persists. No error no warning is ever shown.
I know I can download the plugins, but I'd rather use my WordPress dashboard to do so. I am usually travelling and I am only bringing around a tablet. I'd prefer to not have to do the whole procedure on such a device.
Could you please provide me with a temporary admin access (wp-admin) to a staging copy of your site where the issue has been replicated – so I can further investigate. I will activate a private field for your next answer where you can provide that information safely (this field is only visible by you and the support team). Don't share your own admin account, create a new one that you will delete when we finish troubleshooting.
IMPORTANT: Before we proceed, please backup your site and database.
It has to be a staging copy because I need to reproduce the issue and for that I will have to downgrade WPML and its add-ons to previous versions and try to update them from the dashboard.
at the moment I don't have the time to create a duplicate of the website. I'll try activating the WP errors display and log and see if something comes up when I try the update. I'll post here what I find.
You might wonder why I am so mild with the urgency of a solution.
I am a WPML founder and have unlimited licenses that never expire... however I am not deploying new WPML websites because I have lost faith in the product.
It's always been *WAY* slow. WPML manages to be well slower than WooCommerce, which is a true slow dog of a plugin itself.
On the same hosting, all other websites load in under 2 seconds, if I add WPML it easily takes 4 seconds and nobody (Google SEO included) loves it any more.
The dysfunctional updates are just icing on the cake.
