Skip to content Skip to sidebar

Home › Support › English Support › [Resolved] Translate automatically not working for slug/URL

[Resolved] Translate automatically not working for slug/URL

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

Problem:
The client is experiencing an issue where the "Translate automatically" feature in the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) fails to populate the URL slug field, despite the field being visible and other content translating correctly. The client has enabled "Translate (custom values of slugs)" in WPML settings, made the URL field visible through the "Quick Edit" method, and attempted re-translating from scratch, but the automatic translation engine still does not fill the URL slug field.
Solution:
We explained that when the option "Translate (this will include the slug in the translation and not create it automatically from the title)" is selected, WPML will not automatically translate the slug. Instead, slugs are typically auto-generated from the translated title of the post or page. To have the slugs automatically populated, the client should use the default setting "Auto-generate from title (default)". For more details, please visit Translating Page Slugs documentation.

If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your specific case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the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 further assistance is needed, 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.

Tagged: 

This topic contains 1 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Lucas Vidal de Andrade 2 weeks, 2 days ago.

Assisted by: Lucas Vidal de Andrade.

Author Posts
March 4, 2026 at 8:53 pm #17873058

thomasV-70

The "Translate automatically" feature in the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE) is failing to populate the URL slug field, even though the field is visible and other content on the page translates correctly.

Steps already taken:

Settings Change: I enabled "Translate (custom values of slugs)" in WPML > Settings after the initial translations were already completed.

Field Visibility: I used the "Quick Edit" / "Update" method on the original language pages to force the URL field to appear in the ATE.

ATE Behavior: When opening the ATE, the URL field is now visible (showing a + icon or empty box), but clicking "Translate automatically" ignores this specific field while successfully translating all other strings.

Last Resort Attempt: I have tried deleting the translation entirely (trash and permanent delete) and re-translating from scratch, but the ATE still loads the "100% complete" status from memory and leaves the URL field empty.

Troubleshooting: I have already cleared the WPML cache and synchronized local job identifiers via the Troubleshooting page.

Current Problem: Even though the URL field is now "detected," the Automatic Translation engine refuses to fill it. I have to manually type every slug, which is not feasible for a large number of products and pages.
March 5, 2026 at 10:37 am #17874392

Lucas Vidal de Andrade
WPML Supporter since 11/2023

Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )

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

Hey there,

When you have the option "Translate (this will include the slug in the translation and not create it automatically from the title)" selected, WPML will not translate it automatically. Let me clarify how WPML works in that respect:

By default, the page/post slug are generated by the title. That means that they're indirectly translated. What happens is:

1. The post Title gets translated into the secondary language;
2. The post slug for the translation is created from the translated Title;

That doesn't happen though, when you have the above mentioned option selected. That option is meant to be used when you want to overwrite the default translation, and insert it manually.

It seems to me, that the best option to achieve what you want, is the deafult one "Auto-generate from title (default)"

Let me know if that helped. You can find more about it here:
https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/translating-page-slugs/