The translation process is always stuck in the ‘In Progress’ status

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:

The client was unable to update translations for custom posts; the process remained 'in progress' without completion. Attempts to clear site and plugin caches, and adding more credits did not resolve the issue. The problem persisted even after deleting and retranslating posts.

Solution:

We recommended the following steps:

1. Ensure a full site backup is taken.
2. Navigate to WPML >> Support page, and click on the Troubleshooting link.
3. On the Troubleshooting page, perform the following actions in the *Clean up* section:
- Clear the cache in WPML
- Remove ghost entries from the translation tables
- Fix element_type collation
- Set language information
- Fix WPML tables collation
- Assign translation status to duplicated content
- Fix terms count
- Fix post type assignment
- Cleanup and optimize string tables
- Synchronize local job ids with ATE jobs
- Synchronize translators and translation managers with ATE

If the issue persists after these steps, we advised to regenerate the site key:

1. Visit your account page
2. Delete the existing key for the site and unregister WPML.
3. Generate a new key and register the site again.
4. Ensure all plugins, especially Elementor, are updated to their latest versions.
5. Update the post in the original language to refresh the translation settings.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it may be outdated or not applicable to your specific case. We highly recommend checking related 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 continues, please open a new support ticket.

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.

This topic is split from https://wpml.org/forums/topic/solutions-for-translating-custom-fields/

Tagged: Bug

This topic contains 3 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Bigul 2 months, 4 weeks ago.

Assisted by: Bigul.

Author	Posts
August 8, 2025 at 5:18 am #17304305
renatoA-10	Hello again. However, in the meantime, I needed to update the translations of some custom posts so that all the fields would appear translated. Everything was going well, and I managed to update about 15 posts. Without understanding why, at some point, I could no longer translate. The processes always remain "in progress," and I can't update anything else. To resolve the issue, I followed the WPML website's procedures to cancel the process. Even after completely deleting the existing translation and retranslating the post, it returned to "in progress." After that, I couldn't update the translations again. I tried clearing the site cache and the Pods plugin cache, but that didn't help. I also added more credits to the site to avoid the lack of credits issue, and that didn't solve the problem either. I don't know if it's a temporary server issue, if there's a daily translation limit, or if some other error might have occurred in the meantime. I went back to the development site hidden link and tried updating some posts, and the same thing started happening. I can't update translations on the development site anymore either. It seems like if a translation isn't finished, I can't do anything else. I don't know how to fix this. I don't know if it's because both the Development and Production sites are connected with the same translation license... Or if it could be a server limitation, which may have a process limit... Do you have any idea what could be stopping the translations? Thank you.
August 8, 2025 at 6:00 am #17304315
Bigul	Hello, Welcome to the WPML support forum. I will do my best to assist you in resolving the issue. This may be a temporary sync issue. We have a few requests to help us track it down: 1) Have you experienced similar behavior in the past while translating posts or custom posts? 2) Please create a simple blog post for testing and check whether you're able to translate it as expected. 3) Please tries the following troubleshooting steps after a full site backup{mandatory} and make sure the issue is existing or not. a) Go to WPML >> Support page, click on the Troubleshooting link (blue link in the middle of the page) b) On the Troubleshooting page, please click on the following options of the Clean up section. Wait for confirmation of processing after each one. - Clear the cache in WPML - Remove ghost entries from the translation tables - Fix element_type collation - Set language information - Fix WPML tables collation - Assign translation status to duplicated content - Fix terms count - Fix post type assignment - Cleanup and optimize string tables - Synchronize local job ids with ATE jobs - Synchronize translators and translation managers with ATE If the problem persists, please share the URLs of a couple of affected posts from both the live and staging sites. So we can cross-check them with our records. -- Thanks! Bigul
August 8, 2025 at 10:12 am #17305033
renatoA-10	Hello, thank you for the information. I followed the steps you suggested, but the same issue is still happening. As you can see in the uploaded image, some of the listed posts require updates to display the complete information (for example, the text line for the film author). I was able to update a few of them, but then it stopped working. Here’s an example of one such post that we need to update: hidden link hidden link Could this be a credits or license issue? I took a screenshot of my account. I don't know why it says inactive. I don't know what happened... Thank you
August 8, 2025 at 6:54 pm #17306167
Bigul	Hello, Thank you for the updates. The post has been fully translated using the Advanced Translation Editor, but it has not been delivered yet. So, after taking a full site backup (mandatory), please try the following steps and check if the issue still exists: 1. Visit your account page at https://wpml.org/account/sites/ 2. Delete the existing key for your site (hidden link) 3. Navigate to Plugins>>Add New>>Commercial tab. 4. Click on "Unregister WPML from this site". 5. Refresh the page. 6. Click on "Get a key for this site". 7. Copy the newly generated code. 8. Return to Plugins>>Add New>>Commercial tab. 9. Register the site with the new key. 10. Upgrade to the latest version of plugins (especially Elementor plugins) Then update the post in the original language to refresh the translation settings and update the translation. -- Thanks! Bigul