I am trying to: Remove a language and duplicate IDs in the database for that language using the GUI
Link to a page where the issue can be seen: NA
I expected to see: Functional website
Instead, I got: I noticed at first that all the thumbnail images had disappeared, but when restoring from backup I found that a huge number of original files had been deleted as well
I hope it is not a normal feature of the language removal function that it removes all media in the library.
The funny thing is that this situation repeated itself twice, but the first time I looked for the cause elsewhere and didn't connect it to WPML. I spent really many hours with this, over and over again, to no end when doing anything on this damn site.
There are always some problems on this site, but always related to WPML.
I also did a detailed analysis of the database entry and the real existence of the files on disk.
It doesn't look right to me, the media records are a complete mess and there are many more. I'll attach the resulting report as a link.
Now the staging website is running, so I can provide you complete access to test anything.
I reloaded the database with the Slovakian as testing language. I hope that WPML wil work also on staging site.
According to my analysis, it should be possible to put the media in order using SQL queries, but whether there is a clear connection to deleting media, I really don't know.
Is there a method to transfer the entire site content and settings to a new WP installation?
PS: The Advanced Translation Editor logs contain 21 errors.
My media file analytic table export you can get from the link: hidden link
As I understand, removing language and its media causes all other language media to be removed and corrupted? Can you share with us an example of the issue, to understand and confirm? Maybe a video or a few images would be helpful.
In any case, this is not expected and our tools should work correctly and remove only language-related DB entries. Media files exist only in the default language and the rest are just DB entires for other languages. Also, I see you are using different media-related plugins, so could be it has caused some issues or is causing issues when using WPML.
Hello Drazen,
Yes, I understand how it is supposed to work the same way, but so far I believe that the reason that the media previews have disappeared for several times is probably WPML. I don't see any other relation there, the images actually disappeared during the removal of the language. I've put a lot of work into analyzing the media library files and database, and it doesn't seem to me that the entries for media translation are set up correctly. We've been using WPML since 2015 and a lot could have happened in 8 years 🙂
I set up a staging version where the problem can be easily replicated, just click on remove Slovakian including media translations and see how it turned out the next day. I'll be ready to provide admin access to staging site.
Yes, I use other plugins, but at the same time I have many sites that use the same plugins and this situation has never happened. I considered adding and removing language in WPML as a safe operation but it has been repeatedly confirmed that this is not the case for this site.
Because removing the language is a longer process and because we use CDN Optimole, it was not so easy to identify the problem right away. Even after deleting the images, the site worked almost without problems thanks to the CDN.
thanks for getting back and providing more info on this.
Before we proceeded, can you please try the next steps:
1) Restore backup on your staging site before the issue happened.
2) Disable all other plugins and leave active only WPML plugins and WP default theme, try to replicate the issue again and provide with us a video of these steps and the issue happening, so we can see it clearly.
This will tell us if the issue is caused in combination with other plugins or just WPML, and would help speed up debugging.
I think you're kidding me. I've spent dozens of hours analyzing the problem, and it looks like you're not even reading what I've written and inserting pre-made template responses. Better put ChatGPT in there...
I'm closing this case and will request someone else.
This ticket is now closed. If you're a WPML client and need related help, please open a new support ticket.
