[Resolved] ACF translations return to the main language
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client from DotLineCode company is facing issues with ACF translations on their website. Translators are encountering problems where translations revert to the original language without any edits being made.
Solution: We recommend not mixing translation methods, such as using both the ATE editor and manual edits, as manual edits will be overwritten when the default language page is re-saved. To resolve this, the client should choose one method of translation. If the client prefers manual translation, they should disable the WPML editor and proceed with manual translations. For more information on using different translation editors, please refer to our documentation:
I am a developer from DotLineCode company, and we are experiencing an issue with ACF translations on our website. Translators frequently report problems where translations revert to the original language on their own, even if a particular page has not been edited in any way. Additionally, when saving a page, other pages may revert to the original language's translations. This issue pertains to ACF translations. We have all field groups set to expert translation.
Furthermore, after selecting expert translation, some ACF fields are marked as "Do not translate," "Copy once," or "Translate randomly." Is there a way to mass change them to "Translate"? We have numerous field groups with many fields, and manually changing them would take too much time. I know that setting ACF to "Different fields in all languages" would be the best solution for us, but then we cannot use the advanced translation editor, and without it, translating such a large site is too time-consuming.
Please also kindly request not to dismiss our concerns by suggesting that we systematically disable and enable plugins or set a default template – this is not a solution. We do not incorporate anything into our template that we have not used in conjunction with WPML before, and we have never encountered such errors. We are currently working on a very large project with a substantial number of pages and translations, and they keep breaking on their own. This cannot continue. Our previous project was a twin site to this one, differing only in very few aspects, primarily CSS styles, and this issue did not occur there. The same plugins are also used.
Please look into this matter with the utmost seriousness. In case of any questions, including technical ones about our website, I will provide the best information possible.
There's no bui-in way to set all ACF fields to "translate", also is not the recommended choice for all fields, ie for Media fields, if you use them.
However you can try our Multilingual Tools plugin or create a script. Please check this ticket for reccomandations https://wpml.org/forums/topic/translate-custom-fields-2/
Translations can't revert to their original language. Please check they're not duplicates. If not you may want to enable an activity log and getting some insights, as it's not possible to debug "random" issues.
We have just noticed that on the page in the main language (Polish), which was last edited by us on December 7 at 10:41 am, the ACF field has changed itself to Ukrainian. It happened on December 18 at 00:26, no one from our team was doing anything there at that time, it was the middle of the night. This is not a single case, such things happen in random places and at random times.
We have also noticed that if you do:
1.advanced translation
2.translation through page edits
3.again, advanced translation - note that one translated phrase from page X may be used on pages X, Y, Z
Everything containing that specific word is returning to main language.
that is expected and you should not be using and mixing translation methods, in your case ATE editor and manual edits. If you do so, any edit done manually will be overwritten and deleted once you re-save the default language page.
You should be using only one method, if you wish to use the manual method you should disable the WPML editor and continue to translate manually:
