[Closed with no workaround] Translation of titles and descriptions

Hello,

Thank you for the detailed explanation and the code example.

However, I would like to clarify an important architectural point about our use case.

For our site, **book titles are always in the original language (mostly English, sometimes French)** and must remain **identical across all languages**. They are canonical identifiers, not localized content. Translating book titles is not acceptable for us at all.

Because of this, using filters that exclude fields at the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) job level is not a good solution for us:

* It still creates translation jobs
* It still treats titles as translatable content
* It relies on internal WPML job tables and editor logic
* It does not scale well and is fragile long-term

What we are looking for is a **native WPML configuration**, not a runtime workaround.

Specifically, we need:

* Post titles to be handled as **“Copy” (synchronized across languages)** or **“Do not translate”**
* No translation jobs created for titles
* No ATE involvement for titles at all

This is a very common scenario for book, movie, and media databases, where titles must stay original while descriptions and UI are localized.

Could you please confirm:

1. The officially supported way in WPML to mark **post titles as non-translatable / copy-only**
2. Whether this can be achieved via WPML settings or `wpml-config.xml`
3. If not, whether WPML considers this a limitation or a known design constraint

We want to use WPML in a stable, supported way without custom filters that intercept translation jobs.

Thank you in advance for the clarification.

Best regards,
Boris

Hello,

We are still waiting for a detailed response from your technical team regarding our issue, but we would like to clarify our position to avoid unnecessary delays.

Our use case is a book catalog / store where:

* product titles (original book titles) must remain identical across all languages and must not be translated,
* only selected descriptive fields should be translated,
* dynamic content (AJAX / “load more”) must always respect the current language context.

So far, based on our testing and initial replies, it appears that:

* WPML does not provide a native way to fully exclude titles from translation,
* achieving this behavior requires workarounds and custom code,
* and even then, language context issues may occur with dynamic content.

Before we wait further, we would like to ask you directly:

If this issue **requires significant custom development, complex workarounds, or deep intervention that is not officially supported**, please let us know clearly.

In that case, WPML does not meet our project’s core requirements, and we would like to proceed with a **full refund**, as the plugin cannot be used for its intended purpose in our scenario.

If, on the other hand, there is a **clean, officially supported solution** that:

* guarantees non-translatable titles,
* works reliably with dynamic content,
* and does not rely on fragile workarounds,

we would be happy to review it.

We appreciate your clarification so we can make a decision and move forward without further delays.

Thank you in advance for your time and support.

Kind regards,
Boris

Hello WPML Support Team,

I’m writing to report a series of **critical problems caused by WPML**, which have led to serious operational issues on our production website and significant time loss.

### 1. Incomplete and inconsistent translations

From the very beginning, WPML behaved inconsistently on our site:

* Page content, footers, UI elements, blocks, and headings were often **not translated at all**
* At the same time, **SEO titles and meta descriptions were always translated automatically**
* For an online bookstore selling **foreign-language literature**, this is completely illogical:

* Book titles and descriptions must remain in the original language
* Automatic translation of descriptions made the setup **unnecessarily expensive and unusable**
* There was no clear or reliable way to control this behaviour globally

As a result, we ended up with a **mixed-language site** that was impossible to manage correctly.

---

### 2. Massive uncontrolled data duplication

WPML created a **huge amount of duplicated content** without any clear warnings or safeguards:

* Thousands of duplicate posts and products
* Multiple copies of the same entities with different language bindings
* In total, **over 8,000 records** were created automatically

After deciding to stop using WPML, we discovered that:

* There is **no safe or documented way to fully remove WPML**
* Language data remains deeply embedded in the database
* Products, posts, and files cannot be cleanly restored to a single-language state
* We are now forced to manually investigate and clean up the database, which is extremely time-consuming and risky

---

### 3. Critical redirect issues affecting users

After WPML was disabled, the site started to exhibit **severe redirect problems**, including:

* Automatic redirects to `/ru/` paths and Russian-language product copies
* Mobile users being redirected away from the correct pages
* In some cases, users were unable to access the site at all

This issue persisted even after WPML was disabled and required **hours of technical investigation** to identify cached artefacts left behind by WPML.

This is not a cosmetic issue — it directly affected site availability and user access.

---

### 4. Lack of proper uninstall documentation

Given the complexity and depth of WPML’s integration, it is unacceptable that:

* There is **no official, reliable uninstall or rollback guide**
* There are no warnings about long-term consequences when enabling WPML
* Users are left alone to deal with severe after-effects on production sites

For a premium plugin at this price point, this is extremely disappointing.

---

### What we expect

At this point, we would like:

1. **Official instructions** on how to completely and safely remove WPML from an existing site without leaving destructive side effects
2. Consideration of **compensation or refund (which we will apply for shortly)**, given the real damage caused to a live business website

We invested significant time and money into WPML, and the current outcome is the opposite of what a professional solution should deliver.

I would appreciate a detailed and honest response.

Best regards,
**Boris Shemraev**

Thank you, in the meantime we built our own plugin more suitable for our purposes. Sadly, it looks like I'll have to manually remove 8000 posts that WPML created. Halfway through. Anyway, good luck with your project, maybe this situation will give you a good insight. Take care!