Translation overwritten after activating WPML

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:

The client is using the Woodmart theme and has uploaded German language files for the theme. After activating WPML, the translations seem to be lost, and the interface switches back to English. Deactivating WPML restores the German translations.

Solution:

If you notice that WPML is overwriting the formal German language, we recommend checking and adjusting the language settings in WPML. Go to WPML > Languages > Edit Languages and ensure that German is set to de_DE_formal. This should resolve the issue. For more information, see our regional targeting documentation.

https://wpml.org/documentation/support/adding-hreflang-wordpress/#regional-targeting

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

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Tagged: Bug

This topic contains 4 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by davidS-113 4 days, 8 hours ago.

Assisted by: Bigul.

Author	Posts
May 7, 2025 at 3:06 pm #17007364
davidS-113	Background of the issue: I am using the Woodmart theme and before installing and activating WPML, I uploaded Woodmart's German language files from here: hidden link. With this language file, most of the texts from the theme were translated into German. Symptoms: After activating WPML, all those translations seem to be lost, and everything switched back to English. When I deactivate WPML, I see the German translations again. Questions: Why are my German translations lost after activating WPML? How can I retain my theme translations when using WPML?
May 8, 2025 at 6:40 pm #17013435
Bigul WPML Supporter since 01/2013 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)	Hello, Welcome to the WPML support forum. I will do my best to help you resolve the issue. We assume you are experiencing this issue on the site's backend. If that’s the case, please go to Users >> Profile and change the profile language to German. After that, clear all types of caches and check whether the issue persists. Please refer to this article for more details: https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/setting-the-wordpress-administration-language/#how-users-set-their-administration-language https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/setting-the-wordpress-administration-language/ -- Thanks! Bigul
May 9, 2025 at 6:13 am #17014592
davidS-113	Hi Bigul, no, this is not the case. I am experiencing this issue in the backend and in the frontend. But the frontend is more important for me. I have downloaded .po and .mo files from XTemos (see link I provided previously). I have renamed and uploaded both files to website_root/wp-content/languages/themes/. It is working, when WPML is not active.
May 9, 2025 at 7:38 am #17014845
Bigul WPML Supporter since 01/2013 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)	Hello, Thank you for the updates. As per the Debug Information, the WPML String Translation plugin is not active on the site. So, please activate it and clear the caches. Then check if there is any difference in the results. -- Thanks! Bigul
May 9, 2025 at 8:21 am #17015132
davidS-113	WPML String Translation plugin is active, but nothing changes.
May 9, 2025 at 9:50 am #17015681
davidS-113	I think I found a solution! It seems that WPML does not pay attention to the default language which was set to German (formal). After activating WPML it overwrites the setting with "de_DE". After changing this setting back to "de_DE_formal" all the theme translations seem to be working again. See also: https://wpml.org/de/forums/topic/wpml-ueberschreibt-de_de_formal/