Background of the issue:
I am trying to view the page list in WordPress, but it disappears when I activate WPML. I have tried deactivating all plugins and switching to the Twenty Twenty-Five theme, but the issue persists. I have also created a staging environment to test.
Symptoms:
The pages are gone in the WordPress page list when WPML is activated. There is a critical error message: 'Here, WordPress found an error with one of your plugins, “WPML Multilingual CMS”. There has been a critical error on this site. Please check your admin email inbox for instructions. If you continue to have problems, try the support forum.'
Questions:
Why does the page list disappear when WPML is activated?
How can I resolve the critical error with WPML?
You need to see what the errors are. The first step is to enable debug. You can do this by adding a few lines to the site’s wp-config.php file. With error log enabled, you will see what the actual problem is.
To enable it, open your wp-config.php file and look for define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);. Change it to:
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
In order to enable the error logging to a file on the server you need to add yet one more similar line:
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
In this case, the errors will be saved to a debug.log log file inside the /wp-content/directory.
Is this your first time activating WPML on this site? It looks like there are already existing WPML entries in the database.
If no translations have been done yet, you can try going to the database on the staging site, removing all tables that start with "wp_icl_," and then attempting to activate WPML again.
Please backup your database before making any changes.
Hi!
No this site as been online for a few years and suddenly broke lately...
It was working fine until lately 🙁
and this site has a LOT of content.. thats why i created a staging to fix the issue so i wouldnt lose anything on the live site 🙁
thanks
Have you restored the site's backup, or did you use any tools for database cleanup?
To assist you better, I need to request temporary access to your site, including wp-admin and FTP credentials. Ideally, I would prefer access to a test site where the problem has been replicated, if that's possible. You will find the necessary fields for this information below the comment area when you log in to leave your next reply. Please note that the information you enter is private and will only be visible to you and me.
Hi i have tried the user and it doesnt work, for some reason it wont let me add a user... probably because of the errors, how can i send my access privately? i dont have the option anymore and i cant edit my message
thanks
Thank you for the details. I reviewed your website and examined the database.
The issues with WPML appear to stem from corrupted database tables, which are causing errors in WPML. For instance, I noticed problems in the `wp_posts` and `wp_postmeta` tables, where the Auto Increment is missing. As a result, instead of proper IDs for posts and pages, the entries contain a value of 0.
You can check for this by running the following SQL query:
SELECT * FROM `wp_posts` WHERE `ID` = '0' ORDER BY `post_date`
Please remember to replace `wp_` with your actual database prefix.
The results of this query show incorrect entries, and I found an earlier date of 2025-01-20 19:59:29, suggesting that some corruption occurred in the database on that date.
I recommend restoring a backup from a date prior to this issue starting.
Hi
January 20th is 2 days ago, and the site has been down for at least 1 month, ive been trying to solve this myself and we have no idea when the issue occured as i log in only to update and never to change content in pages... 🙁
so the corruption didnt happen jan 20th or there is another issue because it has been reported by a team member in december... and we dont know when it started happening, obvioulsy after an update because it was fine before
If we try wp sweep could that help? my oldest back up is dec 22nd and its also broken...
Yes, I understand that WPML is causing an error, and no error is present when it is deactivated. The underlying issue is that your database tables need fixing.
I want to point out that all new content is being created with ID 0 because the Auto Increment feature is missing.
You may also have noticed that when WPML is deactivated, additional fatal errors appear in your dashboard. I believe these are related to the same problem.
I fixed the WPML tables in your staging site by running the queries in the following private reply. However, you will need to address the other WordPress tables. It might be good to check with your hosting provider to see if they can assist you. Currently, there are no errors with WPML.
