Skip Navigation

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

Everyone can read, but only WPML clients can post here. WPML team is replying on the forum 6 days per week, 22 hours per day.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
- 12:00 – 14:00 12:00 – 14:00 12:00 – 14:00 12:00 – 14:00 12:00 – 14:00 -
- 17:00 – 21:00 17:00 – 21:00 17:00 – 21:00 17:00 – 21:00 17:00 – 21:00 -

Supporter timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+01:00)

This topic contains 2 replies, has 3 voices.

Last updated by Bigul 3 weeks, 3 days ago.

Assisted by: Bigul.

Author Posts
October 27, 2024 at 4:05 pm #16334998

hasanK-7

Background of the issue:
I need to change the default language from English to Arabic on my site hidden link. I am trying to do this using WPML.

Symptoms:
Changing the default language in settings breaks all the links.

Questions:
What is the best way to change the default language from English to Arabic without breaking links?

October 27, 2024 at 5:05 pm #16335057

Noman
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Asia/Karachi (GMT+05:00)

Hi,

Before your ticket is assigned to one of my colleagues, I'd like to guide you through some initial debugging steps to speed up the support process.

To begin, please note that there’s no best practice for changing the default language. Remember, changing the default language doesn’t change the original language of existing pages. For example, if you translated from English to Arabic, you’ll still edit from English to Arabic, not the other way around.

Also, all internal links may not update automatically, so you might need to adjust them manually.

Finally, consider the SEO impact: changing the default language will add /en/ to your English URLs, and remove the /ar/ from Arabic URL’s so you may need to set up redirects.

Here will be the steps to change the default language:

1. Take a backup of your site first for safety reasons.
2. Go to the WPML >> Languages page and change the default language by pressing the “Change default language” button as you can see in the attached screenshot.
3. Re-save Permalinks from the Settings >> Permalinks page by pressing the save changes button.
4. Clear all sorts of site/server/ CDN cache.

Please let us know if this resolves the issue or if you need further assistance.
Thank you

Change default languages.png
November 1, 2024 at 5:08 am #16353828

Bigul
Supporter

Languages: English (English )

Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+01:00)

Hello,

We would like to make sure you have you switched the default language from English to Arabic after this recommendation. Please confirm. It may be related to the following ticket.

https://wpml.org/forums/topic/wpforms-notification-is-translated-to-arabic-but-customer-gets-english-version/

--
Thanks!

Bigul

The topic ‘[Closed] I need to change the default language from English to Arabic’ is closed to new replies.