<b>Background of the issue: </b>
I'm trying to translate my website from Italian to other languages (English, Spanish, French) using WPML and Elementor as a page builder. The issue can be seen on this page: hidden link.
<b>Symptoms: </b>
I expect to see the internal links point to the translated version of the originally linked page. Instead, I get the Italian link even if I'm browsing the English page. All the other links in different widgets work, but the problem is only in the links inside the Elementor Text Editor widget. I can see the links in the translation page, they are locked, and WPML says that they will be translated to match the translated page, but this isn't happening. At the moment, I have only made translations from Italian to English. The problem is visible in the breadcrumbs at the top of the page and especially in the footer that has many links inserted using Elementor Text Editor.
I already made sure the pages I'm trying to link are published. They have their slugs, also translated. I tried to use the built-in tool to correct the links but it didn't change anything.
<b>Questions: </b>
Why are the links in the Elementor Text Editor widget not translating?
How can I ensure that internal links point to the translated version of the page?
One of my colleagues will take on your ticket. In the meantime, I would like to provide some helpful information.
To help resolve any link-related issues, have you tried using the Translate Link Targets option located at WPML → Settings → Translate Link Targets? This feature scans and updates internal links in translations to ensure they correctly point to content in the appropriate language.
I already tried that function multiple times but without any effect. Wpml says it corrected almost 200 links but there is nothing different on my pages. Even trying multiple times it always says it corrected hundreds of links without any change in my problem.
Thank you for the details. Would you please check if the same thing happens on a minimal installation?
- IMPORTANT STEP! Create a backup of your website. Or better approach will be to test this on a copy/staging version of the website to avoid any disruption of a live website.
- Switch to the default theme such as "TwentyTwenty" by going to "WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > themes".
- Go to "WordPress Dashboard > Plugins" and deactivate all plugins except WPML Multilingual CMS, WPML String Translation, Elementor.
- Create a new page and use one Elementor element containing an internal link to a page that is already translated.
- See if the problem persists.
- If not, re-activate your plugins one by one and check the issue each time to find out the plugin that causes the problem.
If the issue is still happening on a minimal installation, I'd appreciate it if you could give me the URL/User/Pass of your WordPress dashboard after you make sure that you have a backup of your website.
It is absolutely important that you give us a guarantee that you have a backup so if something happens you will have a point of restore.
Make sure you set the next reply as private.
Also we will need your permission to temporarily cioy your website to our server.
Thank you for the login information. Would you please check this video?
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Video Summary:
I found that some widget links weren’t switching languages correctly — likely due to caching or a plugin conflict.
To fix it, I updated the footer links directly in the Advanced Translation Editor, replacing the URLs manually.
Now the links work as expected — but you’ll need to update any remaining links the same way, manually.
Good news: once updated, WPML’s translation memory will remember them, so future widgets with the same links should work fine.
Thanks for checking.
I see that manually editing the links make them work but I have hundreds of link around the website and updating all of them manually is not viable, it would take too much time.
The translation memory is not doing it, for example in the footer the "tree cutting" page is manually corrected but it doesn't update on the breadcrumbs of the product pages (hidden link). Same thing for the "Equipment" page link in the breadcrumbs that still point to the italian page.
I already tried to trigger the link scanning feature from the WPML settings but it didn't fix anything.
I don't have any caching system enabled and I made the test disabling every plugin except WPML and Elementor as you asked.
Hello, Thank you for the reply. To investigate further I will need your permission to copy your website to our server or ask you to give us the login information of the website copy.
Also in any case that we will need to report this to the second tier support we will need your permission for the site copy anyways.
What I have found is that even by adding a clean WordPress installation and only with Elementor and WPML the same issue happens.
The Sandbox website:
hidden link
If you go to the Main Page Tets below:
hidden link
I used a simple Text Widget and linked a section of the text to another page and it does not work in the translated language and links to the original language.
I will report this to the compatibility team. I will get back to you as soon as I have news.
I'm doing some experiments to understand what is not working, I see that if I create new pages, the links get translated correctly but it still doesn't work on old pages (e.g: hidden link). See breadcrumbs.
You can see the same problem in all the pages called TE** or GS*** or BI*** because they all have breadcrumbs inside the elementor text editor.
In your copied version the links are all unlocked (I don't know why) so I guess it's normal but in my original websites the links are still locked but not getting translated. The only exception is the home page that get translated correctly but not the links to the other pages.
Thanks for your login details. I found a bulk way to fix the issue with links going to the wrong language version.
The best solution is:
In your Products list, select all product pages, click Edit, then Apply. Don’t change anything — just click Update. This refreshes the pages so WPML knows they need translation syncing.
Next, go to WPML > Translation Management, select all pages marked as needing translation, and send them for automatic translation.
This won’t cost any credits because the original content hasn’t changed — it just triggers WPML to fix the links.
I tested this on a few pages, and it worked — the English versions now link correctly instead of switching to Italian. Please repeat this for your other languages too.
Thanks for the reply, I tried with your method but the problem is that if I do the bulk edit as you showed me, the translation status doesn't change. The icon still shows the pencil.
Also if I go to the Translation Management page I get this message: "Your default language, Italian, must be mapped to a supported language in order to use automatic translation" and I can't use automatic translation.
I also tried to edit a page inside elementor to force the translation status. If I do that and I save the translation again, I see that some links get translated and some don't.
For example in hidden link the "Tree cutting" link is translated but the "Equipment" is not.
New threads created by Christopher Amirian and linked to this one are listed below:
Thank you for your reply. Those are separate issues that needs to be checked. let me first split this ticket and create a new one to address the language mapping issue.
I do the steps you described:
- Edited page (quick bulk edit doesn't change translation state so I manually edited the with elementor)
- Translated automatically the page I edited.
- "Tree cutting" link is fixed, "Equipment" and "Tree shear for excavator" are not.
Thank you for the video. I followed the exact steps you provided in the video on the copied website for BI500:
hidden link
It worked with no problems while I had all the plugins enabled and the theme using the Child one from Hello Elementor.
This shows that the problem is not related to WPML codebase and there should be some sort of cache or something happening.
I understand that I repeated that before but that is indeed what I conclude in the end. Maybe you an contact your hosting service provider and ask if there is some sort of object cache or server related cache going on?
The best way to test is that you copy your website to your local machine or other server and test the same steps.
