[Resolved] We still see translated content for the content which has been removed from our website

Thanks. I have seen that you have already enabled some options in WPML Setting to remove translated posts when the original post is removed (see the screenshot). Can you explain whether you enabled these options after the posts had already been translated and after the original posts had been removed?

Please also provide the exact steps to reproduce the issue, because it is not clear which posts are involved, what you expected to happen, or any useful links for the investigation. Please also share some screenshots or a video where the issue is visible.

Thanks.

Could you also share some post links where the original language has been removed but the translations are still present? This will help me identify the best approach to clean up those records.

In the meantime, I've discovered something new worth sharing.

First, I want to clarify that the WPML option to remove translated content when the original post is deleted is actually enabled correctly — so the problem seems not related to that setting.

It looks like in the past "az" (Azerbaijani) was used as the primary language. As a result, there are 411 posts that were originally created in az and then translated to ar but not in English. (see the query and screenshot that I attached).

At some point the primary language was switched to English, and from that point 443 posts were created in English and translated to both az and ar.

This means the current content breakdown is:

- English: 443 posts (primary language)
- Azerbaijani (az): 443 posts translated from English + 411 posts that are still registered as originals in az (no English version exists for these)
- Arabic (ar): 443 posts translated from English + 411 posts translated from the old az originals (no English version exists for these)

In conclusion, the 411 az posts with no English counterpart — and their 411 ar translations — are the records we need to address.

Could you confirm whether this content is still relevant, or if it can be removed?

Hi,

I can remove all posts where AZ or AR is set as the primary language. Before I proceed, please confirm that you have a backup available. I also want to clarify that I cannot be held responsible for any critical issues that may occur during the removal process. For this reason, I strongly recommend making sure that you can restore a saved backup at any time.

In any case, I will first test the deletion process in a safe environment to reduce the risk that something might go wrong. After that, I will apply the changes to your website.

Regarding your rule request, we do not currently offer support for automatically translating only for specific type posts, but this feature is already in our queue, and I can ask to increase the priority. For now, you can either select the content you want to translate manually or enable the Autotranslation feature to translate all post types automatically on your website.

Regarding the match issue, we can check it together, but after I clean your website, you will need to provide the lists affected by this issue. So far, the issue is not related to translated posts not being removed, but rather to the fact that you changed the primary language in the past. For this reason, the count you currently see is different.

Please let me know once you have a full backup of your website and are able to restore it in case of any problems.

Hi,

I built and installed a custom plugin called WPML Debug Tools that allowed me to safely identify and remove orphaned translation records from the database.

The plugin includes two tools:

1. Posts From a Previous Primary Language (see screenshot 1)

This tool identified all posts that were created or translated when Azerbaijani was the primary language of the site. After the switch to English, these posts were left without an English counterpart and were no longer reachable through the normal WPML workflow. I used this tool to permanently remove them.

2. Translations With Removed Primary Post (see screenshot 2)
This tool identified all posts that were properly translated from English at some point, but whose English original had since been deleted — leaving the translations disconnected with no source to refer back to. I used this tool to permanently remove those as well.

On a related note, WPML has a setting to automatically delete translations when the original post is removed — this is now correctly enabled on your site, so this issue should not occur again in the future. That said, please make sure to verify this behaviour whenever you delete a post in English.

In conclusion, the database is now clean and properly aligned. Posts in secondary languages (Azerbaijani and Arabic) are now fewer than posts in English, as expected (see screenshot 3).

Please let me know if you notice anything unexpected or have any questions.

Best regards

Hi,

Yes, I confirmed that you still have some orphan records.

You can clean them manually by going here:
hidden link
and selecting all of them.

However, I checked whether the "when deleting a post, delete translation as well" option works properly by removing the post
"Large Corner 907SQM Plot | Prime Residential Land"
in my local WordPress copy, and its translations were removed correctly as well.

In fact, the translated link
hidden link
was no longer available (see the screenshot).

Here are the steps you can replicate yourself to verify that translated posts are cleaned when the original post is removed:

1. Go to hidden link
2. Open the frontend link of an English post that you want to remove.
3. Open the translated posts by switching the languages.
4. Remove the original post.
5. Then try to open both the original post and its translated links: they should no longer be available.

So, this means that everything seems to be working correctly.

At this point, I suspect that you may be using some automation scripts that remove the posts directly from the database, without going through the WordPress function

wp_delete_post()

, which triggers hooks such as

after_delete_post

(see the documentation:
https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_delete_post/).

If that hook is not triggered correctly, the WPML translation cleanup logic does not run, and you may end up with orphan records.

So, could you please clarify how you are removing your posts? ? In any case, to remove a post automatically, you need to use the method wp_delete_post in your automation script.

Anyway, you can always clean the orphan posts manually by going there with the plugin tool that I created for you, but remember this is a temporary solution, and I can’t ensure that it will work forever:
hidden link.