We are preparing to migrate our website to a new WordPress site.
We are encountering a problem importing blog posts and their translated versions.
Our current WP site includes:
English (371) | French (381) | All languages (752)
We use WPLM export/import plugin last version (3.1.14)
From this current WP site, we export a category of blog articles, which downloads an .XML file, and we import the XML into the new WP.
We then use WPML Importer to activate the import. Activation is possible.
We have tested with a total number and a reduced number, and the problem is the same: the translations are not imported.
In the small-scale test, we have 8 articles on the current site. In the imported articles, we only find 8 articles in French, and not the English translations.
Out of a total of 371 articles, only about 20 articles are imported when we run the process for all articles.
We only use categories and no etiquettes. We already done this export import from another WP including support articles, and it worked well.
Furthermore, the number of articles displayed is incorrect when we perform the import (33 instead of 16 with translation or 8).
Since the chat was idle for a while, I converted it into a ticket. No worries, though, we can continue the conversation here until your issue/concern is fully resolved.
Please check the chat transcript. It explains the recommended export-import steps and how to run the importer so that the content and its translations are imported correctly and stay properly connected. Follow those steps and let me know how it goes!
If you need any help along the way or have questions, feel free to reply here and I will be happy to assist.
Here is a video showing their procedure, which successfully retrieves the English articles, but when I go to WPML => Export - Import, I don’t see the command to connect the French articles with the English ones.
Since you're using the default WordPress Export/Import tool, there are some important preparation steps you need to complete before exporting to ensure WPML properly handles the translation relationships.
Before you start exporting:
1. Navigate to "WPML → Export and Import" on your source site
2. Choose "I'm exporting the content from this site" and click Continue
3. Select "I'm using the built-in WordPress export/import tool" and continue
These steps are crucial — they tell WPML to prepare the content for export with the standard WordPress tools.
Once you've completed the preparation steps above, follow this process:
1. Go to Tools → Export on your source site
2. Choose Pages (or whichever post types you want to export)
3. Keep the default settings and click Download Export File
On your destination site:
1. Go to Tools → Import
2. Upload the exported file
3. Make sure the default language is selected before submitting the import
After the import completes successfully:
1. Go to WPML → Export and Import on the destination site
2. Now you should see the "Run Importer" button
3. Click this button to allow WPML to connect the translated content with the original content
4. Once complete, check your Pages section to verify that the default and translated pages are correctly linked
After completing all steps, you should see in your Pages list that the original pages and their translations are properly connected.
Please follow these steps carefully and let me know how it goes. I'm here to help if you encounter any issues or need clarification on any step!
Thank you so much for taking the time to record that video – it was really helpful.
I've gone through everything you shared, and I can confirm that your process was fine. I actually tried replicating this on my local setup following the same steps, and sure enough, I was able to reproduce the exact same issue.
Now that I've confirmed this is a real issue (and not just a one-off situation), I'm going to escalate this to our internal team right away. I'll make sure this gets the attention it deserves and push for either a fix or a solid workaround as quickly as possible.
The moment I hear anything back or have an update for you, I'll surely let you know!
I really appreciate your cooperation on this and your patience while we get it sorted out.
