Unable to successfully setup WPML

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Supporter timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)

Tagged: Bug

This topic contains 9 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Kor 8 hours, 22 minutes ago.

Assisted by: Kor.

Author	Posts
June 6, 2025 at 1:42 am #17112712
sahraC	<b>Background of the issue: </b> We are trying to install WPML but without success so far. When reaching the end of the setup wizard, we cannot proceed beyond the seventh, final step ("Finished"). The "Go to Translation Dashboard" button is unclickable, and the "WPML → Languages" link goes to a page with the message, "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page." In troubleshooting the issue, we have checked/attempted the following notable actions to no avail: 1. Disabling all plugins and reactivating only WPML. 2. Switching to a default WP theme (e.g. "Twenty Twenty-Three"), disabling all plugins, and reactivating only WPML. 3. Deactivating, uninstalling, reinstalling, and reactivating WPML via "OTGS Installer" and also manually 4. Increasing memory limit in wp-config.php to 256M (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/setup-wizard-is-failing-and-cannot-finish-wpml-setup/) 5. functions.php injections (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/cant-configure-the-wpml-plugin-sorry-you-are-not-allowed-to-access-this-page/) 6. Confirmed there is no duplicate entry error in MySQL tables, namely within "wp_term_taxonomy" (https://wpml.org/forums/topic/problems-with-finishing-setup/) NOTE: Although MySQL is 5.5 instead of 5.6 according to the debug information, we are using MariaDB 10.3.17. <b>Symptoms: </b> The "Go to Translation Dashboard" button is unclickable, and the "WPML → Languages" link goes to a page with the message, "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page."
June 6, 2025 at 9:01 am #17113267
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thanks for contacting us. This sounds like some sort of permission issue. I will need to closely examine your website. Therefore, I will require temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to a test site where the problem has been replicated, if possible. This will enable me to provide better assistance and determine if any configurations need to be modified. Please note that it is important to have a backup for security purposes and to prevent any potential data loss. You can use the UpdraftPlus plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/) to fulfill your backup requirements. Your upcoming reply will be treated with confidentiality and will only be visible to you and me. ✙ To resolve the issue, I may need your consent to deactivate and reactivate plugins and the theme, as well as make configuration changes on the site if necessary. This emphasizes the significance of having a backup.
June 6, 2025 at 4:45 pm #17114668
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thank you for your reply. I can see a 500 error on the setup page, as shown in the attached screenshot. Could you please share your FTP access details here so I can check the debug log? For your reference, this article explains the steps I’ll be taking on your site: https://wpml.org/documentation/support/debugging-wpml/
June 6, 2025 at 5:53 pm #17114821
sahraC	Thanks, Kor! I'm going to reach out to the hosting provider and get them to forward FTP access details to me so that I can drop them in here once received. Stay tuned!
June 9, 2025 at 10:04 pm #17119746
sahraC	Hello again, hope you had a good weekend. I now have the FTP details to pass along, but I'm not sure how to post a private message without being prompted to like last time when I gave the WP-Admin details.
June 10, 2025 at 12:56 am #17119914
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thanks for your reply. I've enabled the private reply option for you.
June 10, 2025 at 7:39 am #17120513
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thank you for your reply. I only see this specific error below in the debug log, and it doesn't appear to be related to the issue. However, I recommend sharing it with your hosting provider for further review. Additionally, please ask them to check if services like ModSecurity might be blocking WPML’s AJAX requests, and have them investigate any potential blocked AJAX activity. [10-Jun-2025 07:28:40 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Cannot redeclare wp_cache_switch_to_blog() (previously declared in /var/newrelic/wordpress/object-cache.php:20) in /var/newrelic/wordpress/object-cache.php on line 20 If the issue continues and your hosting provider is unable to assist, please let me know and I’ll escalate this to our 2nd Tier Support for further investigation.
June 11, 2025 at 8:25 pm #17127803
sahraC	Hello again! I relayed your message to the hosting provider and they came back with this message: "It looks like WPML had a bug. They call wp_cache_init() in the classes/taxonomy-term-translation/class-wpml-sync-term-meta-action.php file when they should not. I’ve commented this out. Can you please see if this has fixed the issue."
June 12, 2025 at 7:31 am #17128632
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thanks for your reply. It's not fixed when I checked. I'll need to escalate this to our 2nd Tier Support for further investigation. I will come back to you once I've received feedback.
June 16, 2025 at 7:53 am #17137295
Kor WPML Supporter since 08/2022 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Singapore (GMT+08:00)	Thanks for your patience. Our 2nd Tier Support checked and they found out this error below in the debug log. [13-Jun-2025 08:09:33 UTC] PHP Fatal error: Cannot redeclare wp_cache_switch_to_blog() (previously declared in /var/newrelic/wordpress/object-cache.php:20) in /var/newrelic/wordpress/object-cache.php on line 20 Could you please contact your hosting provider and ask them to disable server cache and the drop-in object-cache.php ? Let us know how it goes.