I duplicated a product, tweaked it a bit, and retranslated it with PTC ATE and the translated page gets a 404 error when I switch from the origional language to a translation language.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi,
Do you have a staging site where I can take a look?
Please also provide an example URL that I can use for testing.
I would eventually also need to request temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to your site
– preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible –
in order to be of better help and check if some configurations might need to be changed
Your next answer will be private which means only you and I have access to it.
❌ Please backup your database and website ❌
✙ I would additionally need your permission to de-activate and re-activate Plugins and the Theme, and to change configurations on the site. This is also a reason the backup is really important.
✙ Please add the Links to the […] Edit Screen, the Page/Post where you insert the […] and the corresponding Front End Page/Screen
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Thanks for the access.
Here is the backend link to an example product: hidden link
The issue is that the products are currently saved as drafts. Because of this, the system generates a temporary permalink such as:
?post_type=product&p=22746
You only need to publish these drafts to resolve the issue.
OK so why did WPML create the translation as a draft, that has never happened before. The origional english is not in draft. Also the Icelandic slug is the english name with (copy) or (copy)(copy). What's up with that?
Typically I don't have to go into the translation page to publish it. I add the translation from the English side, let PLC translate the page, save, the update the english page and I'm good to go. This is first time translation wasn't published. Also first time I translate a duplicated product. me thinks there might be a connection.
NEW URGENT varient. All categories on production site are now giving 404. I can do a fresh restore on the site you have access too so you can troubleshoot
Crisis averted, went to hidden link and re-saved the translation for product-categories, and that kicked something. Might be good to figure out what could have happened.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)
Hi,
In this ticket, we are only addressing the issue with the draft. If you still need assistance with the new report, we can split the ticket and handle that separately.
OK so why did WPML create the translation as a draft? That has never happened before. The original English version is not in draft. Also, the Icelandic slug is the English name with “(copy)” or “(copy)(copy)”. What’s going on?
In WPML/WCML, when a product is duplicated, the duplication process copies the full database entry. Because of this, the translation state and post status can also be copied to the translated product. If the product was duplicated while in a different state, the translation may be created as a draft and the slug can receive the “(copy)” suffix.
As I've stated before, the product was in published state when I translated it. Sounds like you are saying that root cause analysis (RCA) is not your job, that all you care about is that I'm not experiencing the issue right now and that this is just how things works and I just need to get used to it.
If that is an accurate read, then I guess you mark this as resolved. I on the other hand think RCA is a valuable way to improve the stability of the product, improve the user experience and overall making it better.
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )German (Deutsch )
Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)
In your first comment, you are saying:
- I duplicated a product, tweaked it a bit, and retranslated it with PTC ATE
I went to Products > All products and duplicated the product "Cybersecurity Awareness April 4 2026".
- Note that WooCommerce will create this new product as a "Draft" and if the product is already translated, this step will also duplicate the translation.
As the original product is a "Draft" after duplicating it in WooCommerce, the translation should also become a "Draft". This is expected and related to the fact that WooCommerce does not publish a duplicated product directly.
If you want to avoid WPML creating a duplicate translation, you can use this snippet:
/**
* Prevent WCML from also duplicate the translations
* when duplicating a product.
*/
add_action( 'admin_init', function() {
/** @var \woocommerce_wpml $woocommerce_wpml */
global $woocommerce_wpml;
if ( isset( $woocommerce_wpml->duplicate_product ) ) {
remove_filter( 'woocommerce_product_duplicate', [ $woocommerce_wpml->duplicate_product, 'woocommerce_duplicate_product' ] );
}
} );
WPML will only sync the status for products once, when translated for the first time.
After that, it is technically possible to have different statuses per post, page, or product.
If you want to keep the statuses in sync, you might need to use a custom snippet, for example this snippet would work for any post type:
add_action('transition_post_status', 'stk_sync_translation_status', 10, 3);
function stk_sync_translation_status($new_status, $old_status, $post) {
// Bail out if nothing changed or during autosave
if ($new_status === $old_status || (defined('DOING_AUTOSAVE') && DOING_AUTOSAVE)) {
return;
}
// Ensure WPML is loaded
if (!did_action('wpml_loaded')) {
return;
}
$post_type = get_post_type($post->ID);
// Restrict to specific post types
$allowed_types = ['post', 'page', 'product'];
if (!in_array($post_type, $allowed_types, true)) {
return;
}
$element_type = 'post_' . $post_type;
$trid = apply_filters('wpml_element_trid', null, $post->ID, $element_type);
if (!$trid) {
return;
}
$translations = apply_filters('wpml_get_element_translations', null, $trid, $element_type);
if (empty($translations)) {
return;
}
// Prevent recursion
remove_action('transition_post_status', 'stk_sync_translation_status', 10);
foreach ($translations as $translation) {
// Skip the original post
if ($translation->element_id == $post->ID) {
continue;
}
// Ensure user has permission
if (!current_user_can('edit_post', $translation->element_id)) {
continue;
}
// Ensure the translation post exists
if (!get_post($translation->element_id)) {
continue;
}
wp_update_post([
'ID' => $translation->element_id,
'post_status'=> $new_status,
]);
}
// Re‑attach the hook
add_action('transition_post_status', 'stk_sync_translation_status', 10, 3);
}
