German product variations missing after changing taxonomy source language from EN to DE

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Supporter timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)

Tagged: WCML

This topic contains 11 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Long Nguyen 21 hours, 7 minutes ago.

Assisted by: Long Nguyen.

Author	Posts
February 23, 2026 at 8:27 am #17841862
tomasM-28	Hello, I am working on a WooCommerce shop with 20 language mutations. The default language of the site is German (DE). The issue: I recently noticed that some taxonomy bases (product attributes) were incorrectly set to English (EN) instead of German (DE). I used the WPML Taxonomy Translation interface to change the source language of these taxonomies to German and then triggered a synchronization/re-generation of the terms. The result: Now, all German (default language) product variations have disappeared from the WordPress administration. When I edit a product in German, the "Variations" tab is empty or the variations are missing. However, when I switch to any other language (e.g., Slovak, English, etc.), the translated variations are still there and visible. It seems that the link between the original German products and their variations was broken during the taxonomy language switch. What I have tried: WPML -> Support > Troubleshooting -> Clear cache WPML -> Support -> Troubleshooting -> Fix element_type collation WPML -> Support -> Troubleshooting -> Set language information WooCommerce -> Status -> Tools -> Recount terms Could you please help me restore the visibility of the German variations without losing the existing translations in the other 19 languages? Thank you.
February 24, 2026 at 2:38 am #17844719
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi Tomas, I'm Long from the WPML Development team, I'm happy to help you with this issue. I've tried to reproduce the issue on a demo site but didn't see the same thing. Changing the taxonomy base source language won't change the term (attribute item) or variation (post) source language, which is the German language in your case. I would like to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site so I can take a better look at the issue. It would be better to have a testing site where the issue is replicated. Your next reply is set to private to share the info. ❌ IMPORTANT: Please backup your database and website before proceeding ❌ You can use this plugin to create the backup: https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/ Looking forward to your reply. Thanks
February 25, 2026 at 4:15 am #17849201
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, I checked a variable product in the German language that doesn't have variations and found something very weird. - The variable product URL hidden link that has the ID 92604 - Translation product in "cs" Czech language 92653 - A variation in "cs" language has ID 94636 - But the variation has "de" German language in the database and indicates that it is the original variation, not a translation variation. I'm still investigating the issue and I will update you here when I have something to share. If you have more information about this issue or have a backup file before it happens, please let me know. Thanks.
February 25, 2026 at 2:54 pm #17852006
tomasM-28	Hi, thank you for your assistance. I have some database backuts, which are older, before translations hidden link Also, I could try to restore server from last week.
February 26, 2026 at 6:53 am #17853451
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, Yes, please restore the site to the point before changing the source language of product attributes. I will help you change the source language of product attributes and observe the issue with variations. Please share the credentials again if they are removed. Your next reply is set to private to share the info. Thanks.
February 27, 2026 at 1:59 am #17858465
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, After restoring your site, I check the product hidden link again and here are some informations: - Variable product ID 92604 in German language -- Variation product ID 94636 in German language, which is correct - Translation variable product ID 92653 in Czech language -- Translation Variation product ID 94684 in Czech language, which is missing after the issue happened - No other translations of this variable product in other languages, only translation in the Czech language. - Attribute (taxonomy) Farbe Konstruktion - Product Color Construction in English language, I updated it to German language and updated the variable product above without any issues with variations. Please check the attached screenshots. So, I believe the issue happens after you import translations for products on your site or do something there, not after changing the source language of the attribute (taxonomy). Can you please recheck this and let me know how it goes? Looking forward to your reply. Thanks
February 27, 2026 at 2:57 pm #17860397
tomasM-28	What would you recommend in this situation? I have already translated all taxonomies, shop URLs, and products, spending €300 in translation credits. Does this mean we have to redo the entire process from scratch?
February 28, 2026 at 11:59 am #17861713
tomasM-28	Hi there, I’ve given the translations another go. After restoring the database, I took the following steps: I updated the store slugs. Now, I’m trying to change the attribute URLs. As you can see in the screenshot, the attribute 'Auflage' still has an English base. However, when I check String Translations, it’s already set to German. I tried resaving the permalinks to regenerate the URLs, but it’s still showing as untranslated. Also, is there a way to automate this? I don’t want to translate everything (like plugins or themes), just the product attributes and their values across all languages."
March 1, 2026 at 7:42 pm #17863020
tomasM-28	Can you please review this issue? I tried everything I could find on forum, uset LLM to guide me, but I cannot change the base language to German.
March 2, 2026 at 7:40 am #17863405
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, 1. To change the source language of the attribute slug, you can follow steps: - Go to WCML > Store URLs tab > Translate the attribute slug - Go to WPML > String Translation > Change the source language of the string Refer to the documentation https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/string-translation/how-to-change-the-source-language-of-strings/ Now you can see the attribute slug "auflage" has German as the source language. 2. Regarding the already translated content: if you've translated products automatically, the translation content will be saved to the translation memory. If you send them to automatic translation again, you won't be charged for the same content. You can send a product to automatic translation again and check the usage credits in WPML > Translation Dashboard > Payments tab > Automatic translation usage reports. Refer to the documentation https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/how-wpml-keeps-track-of-your-translations/ Looking forward to your reply. Thanks
March 2, 2026 at 9:47 am #17863903
tomasM-28	Thank you, I did not realise I need to first manualy translate to german and only then change it via string translations. Also, is there any way how to translate taxonomies and its values automatically? I do not see any option.
March 3, 2026 at 1:36 am #17866628
Long Nguyen WPML Supporter since 02/2022 Languages: English (English ) Vietnamese (Vietnamese ) Timezone: Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh (GMT+07:00)	Hi, Basically, the taxonomy terms are associated with posts. So you can simply send the posts to automatic translation to translate taxonomy terms. Please follow the documentation below to get more information https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/translating-post-categories-and-custom-taxonomies/ https://wpml.org/faq/how-to-translate-all-taxonomy-terms-at-once/ Thanks.