Problem: The client reported that after translating their site from English to Russian, all Russian translations were displayed as question marks across the site. Solution: We identified that the issue was due to the database encoding not being set to UTF-8. We recommended the following steps: 1. Adjust the database tables to use UTF-8 encoding by executing the following SQL commands:
ALTER TABLE $table DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci
ALTER TABLE $table CHANGE $field_name $field_name $field_type CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin
2. Add the following line to the wp-config.php file to ensure the database uses UTF-8 charset:
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
3. Clear the WPML cache and fix WPML tables collation via WPML->Support->Troubleshooting. 4. If the issue persists, deactivate WPML temporarily and test creating a new page with Cyrillic letters. 5. For existing pages, re-save the translations or edit and update the pages without making changes to force a refresh of the content.
If these steps do not resolve the issue or if the solution seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. If the problem persists, please open a new support ticket.
Problem: If you're experiencing an 'Uncaught TypeError: Cannot access offset of type string on string' error in the WP SEO Multilingual classes RankMathSEO Sitemap Hooks.php on line 69, it might be due to issues with the Rank Math SEO caching. Solution: We recommend the following steps to resolve this issue: 1. Edit the file at .../wp-content/plugins/wp-seo-multilingual/classes/RankMathSEO/Sitemap/Hooks.php using a code editor. 2. Navigate to line 66. 3. Just before line 66, add the following code:
// If 'loc' is not set, just return the URL unchanged.<br />if (!isset($url['loc'])) {<br />return $url;<br />}
4. Save the changes. **** Important! Please make a full site backup (files and DB) before you proceed with these steps****
This workaround should help mitigate the issue temporarily. Additionally, we have escalated this problem to our compatibility team and it will be addressed in future versions of WPML SEO.
We have also published an errata regarding this issue, which you can view here.
If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. Should you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.
