[Resolved] WPML using templates / template parts from mother theme

Additional info:

Please notice the header navigation menu when you switch from default (Danish) to English. The layout works (the correct "Header" template part is selected), but the menu turns out a mix of English and Danish translations!

The menus are wp_navigation Navigation Menus. They have been translated to all the site's languages (Danish, Enligsh, Norwegian and Swedish).

I've been really impressed with the WPML system but also feel it has really messed up my site in ways I can't even begin to understand, please help! 🙏

TLDR: Facing 2 issues:
- Language switching loads wrong "Header" template part and "Page" template, but only sometimes. Started after activating the plugin.
- Translation of Navigation Menus has corrupted the menus. Started after translating the menus.

Hi Waqar, thanks for looking into it!

I've disabled WP Super Cache. Issues still persist.

Is there any way we can continue without sharing admin access? As the site contains sensitive information like member datas etc. and the organization is kind of shy, I'm sorry about this inconvenient/annoying impasse.

However I've googled the issue and come across a handful of other users experiencing similar issues, so I'm hoping for some theories on what's actually going on here so I might be able to troubleshoot it myself 🙏

Could the child theme be the issue? It does look like WPML reads out templates and template parts from the mother theme, which to me is unexpected behavior that could possibly explain what's going on.

Does WPML support use of child themes?

Hi. Are you on the ball? Please get back to me. I still need some help.

Since we spoke last I have tried going back to the mother theme (deleting the child theme) and removing duplicate wp_template_parts in wp_posts table.

But WPML doesn't seem to understand that these translations are now gone and need to be regenerated: When I try to retranslate the template part in Admin GUI, it loads the translator, but the busy message never goes away.

Weird thing is, it DOES regenerate the files in the database, although with a different slug. I tried renaming the slug, but I'm still not getting the translation page to load in Admin GUI.

Please help, my site is a complete mess and I am a little desperate!

Hi again Waqar,

I just deleted the template part (Header) and started over, and WPML was able to let me translate it. However, the header now only shows up on original language pages. On translated pages it is simply missing.

I notice that in wp_posts table the original template part has slug and guid A while the translated ones have slug and guid B. I have mutated them so they all have the same slug and guid, but getting the same result.

I tried opening one of the translated pages and re-saving it in case the header was fetched there, but getting the same result.

Please advise: How are template parts fetched and what could be a reason my translated pages are not able to find the translated headers?

Thank you.

Update! The server Front Page template was referencing the child theme. Corrected that and the Front Page now works for all translations!

I guess that resolves my issue. Thank you for your input Waqar, and I hope this thread can help others having similar issues.

As I understand it, there may be a bug in WPML causing it to duplicate (in database wp_posts table) templates for translation from both mother and child theme whether or not the template file exists in child theme, causing huge confusion for the site on language switching.

My setup was I had developed the header (template part) in the mother theme, then at some point created a child theme and developed the finished header anew there. The header selection confusion seemed to begin immediately after installing and activating WPML, or, I had possibly added both headers to the translation basket already at this point, I'm not sure - but they were not translated yet by the time the issue began; I remember attempting to translate them to see if that would solve it.

Also not sure how the server-located templates and template parts played in, as I don't understand how these are used by the site vs. the database-located files in wp_posts (are they a fallback? Are the database files fallbacks, only actively used by WPML?)

That being said, I am hugely impressed with the functionality of this plugin overall as it has performed the translation tasks and management extremely well. Definitely worth every penny, just please promise me you'll look into the child theme issue 🙏

Best regards, Ingrid