Background of the issue:
I have posts on my website that have been translated using WPML. I am trying to edit the translations of these posts.
Symptoms:
Whenever I click on a translation and edit it in the translation editor, I lose all my translations. For example, when I try to edit the Danish translation of a post, many fields are empty.
Questions:
For example i have the english version of a post: hidden link and this is the danish version: hidden link. All translated correctly. But when viewing the translation editor all fields are empty?
Please upgrade all the plugins (including Elementor) on your site to the latest versions after taking a full site backup (mandatory).
Once updated, please try the workaround suggested in the following errata. Becuase it looks related. Then check if the issue still occurs. You may need to use "post_post" as the "element_type", instead of "post_product".
First i made a staging enviroment as recommended. There i updated all plugins to the latest versions. Then i following the instructions on the provided link. Inserted the sql query in the DB and placed the script in the functions.php. Unfortunately this did not resolve my issue. Is it a possibility that you guys take a look? this is a staging website so i can give sftp and database access. Can i just paste the creditials here?
Also the only thing i changed from live is that the languages dont have another domain for each language but just /nl or /de.
Thank you for the updates. I am enabling the private option for the next reply. Please fill in the private details fields (including FTP credentials) after a full site backup.
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Thank you for the staging site details. I had a quick check. This requires further testing. So, please grant permission to:
- Deactivate non-WPML plugins
- Switch to the default Twenty Twenty-Five theme on the staging site for further troubleshooting
- Install the Adminer plugin for a quick check of the database structure and contents. It will help us inspect relevant tables without needing full database access.
- Create a copy of the site using the Duplicator plugin in case of escalation to our developers
Thank you for the permission. I am making a copy of the site now, and it shows *Host Build Interrupt* error, so taking more than expected time. We will debug it further and get back to you as soon as possible. Please wait.
We are still working on this. I created a copy of the site manually using WP File Manager and the Adminer plugin, as Duplicator Pro and All-in-One Migration are not supported by your hosting provider.
After detailed testing, the issue persists even after applying the possible workarounds and switching to the beta version of the upcoming WPML 4.8. I have shared the details with our second-tier team for further debugging. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Please wait.
I would like to like to know if you already have a update. Our client is getting a little impatient because we cannot further implement features without the new editor working.
We are still working on this case and have already tried multiple possible workarounds, but none have resolved the issue. We will get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your kind understanding. Please wait.
Can you give me some kind of update revolving this issue? We would really like to continue our activities on the website but are delayed because of this wpml issue.
Sorry for the late response. We have been working on the best possible workaround to resolve the issue you are experiencing.
The problem occurs because many of your older posts (especially those originally created in Dutch) were translated using a mix of the WordPress native editor and the WPML Classic Translation Editor. You have now switched to the WPML Advanced Translation Editor. Since each of these three translation modes uses a different workflow, switching between them often leads to translation loss.
On the staging site, we are getting the expected results after applying the following steps. Please test with a few existing translations there and share your feedback.
1) Upgrade to WPML 4.8 series, which has a lot of improvements and new features
2) Run the following query in the database using the Adminer plugin (the table prefix is different in your case)
UPDATE wp_icl_translate_job SET editor = 'wpml' WHERE editor LIKE 'wp'
3) Disabled *Use also for old translations created with the classic editor option* in WPML >> Settings >> Translation Editor
4) Then update the posts' translations
This approach will allow you to keep the existing translations in the Classic Translation Editor while using the Advanced Translation Editor for new ones. That way, you will not lose your previously completed translations.
Thanks for this deep investigation of our problem. So if i understand correctly the old posts which are translated with the old WPML translator keep using this old translator right? Newly created posts use the new editor. This way we don't lose the translations which is great. My only concern is that the old editor doesn't have a lot of new features like automatic translations but i understand that this is simply not possible.
The only then we really need to work is the ability to update the taxonomies with the old translator. For example i have a old post in english that i add a new category to. I want this old post to also have the newly added category in the other languages so i need to synchronize this posts in all other languages. Does this taxonomy synchronize also work in the old editor?
If i want to implement these fixes into the live website i need to follow step 1 till 4 you mentioned right? Can you please explain a bit more what to do at step 2?
In step 2 you said "using the Adminer plugin" We cant just run this query in Phpmyadmin?
