Background of the issue:
We are experiencing an issue with string translations on our website using WPML. Some strings that we have manually translated and updated are reverting to older, incorrect translations automatically. This issue occurs when automatic translations are enabled, but not when they are disabled, which is not a viable solution for us. We have tried several troubleshooting steps, including clearing the WPML cache, using 'Remove ghost items from translation tables,' synchronizing local job IDs with ATE jobs, and changing the string domain in the backend and retranslating. During our tests, we noticed that re-translating 'new' strings results in translations being prefilled with old, incorrect versions, suggesting an issue with the translation memory.
Symptoms:
Translated strings are automatically reverting to older versions without manual action. Re-translating 'new' strings results in prefilled old, incorrect translations, indicating a possible issue with the translation memory.
Questions:
Is there a way to clear or reset the translation memory?
How can we prevent automatic reversion to outdated translations?
2) If you’re using object caching or a similar system, please disable it temporarily.
3) Once ready staging site, please check if issue still happens and share admin access with me and steps to check the issue, so I can investigate further.
First, I can confirm that there is no automatic string translation feature enabled on your website.
The way the “memory” works is that it either suggests a translation that was previously made for the same string, or it loads one from the default translation file provided by the theme or plugin — if that file already contains a translation for the string.
For example, take the string kasteeloost_extra > Reserveer een tafel.
This particular string doesn’t have an existing translation, so when you click the “+” icon, the system suggests a translation from one of the two sources mentioned above. This is normal and expected behavior — you can always modify it if needed. Once the translation is saved and there is pencil icon, nothing else will or can modify it.
In your case, the same string under the domain kasteeloost already has the translation “Reservieren Sie eine Tafel”, so seeing that suggested for kasteeloost_extra is the expected result. Image attached.
What you have described and explained is expected, please let me know if there is some other issue you are facing or I have not understood it correctly.
1. The 'Reserveren Sie eine Tafel' is an incorrect translation and should be purged from memory completely.
However, this would not be a problem, if the automatic translation feature did not overwrite new translations with these values from memory. That is issue 2:
2. If we enable automatically translate everything, WPML periodically overwrites string translations with new auto-filled translations, I assume from the translation memory.
You mention:
"Once the translation is saved and there is pencil icon, nothing else will or can modify it."
This is incorrect. Both me and a colleague of mine have observed this behavior on the live website. The string translation values get overwritten by the previous, wrong, versions. Usually, the time it takes to overwrite the new value with the old value is somewhere between an hour and a day. Sometimes it is instant.
I would urge you to look into this issue and see if you can find any possible causes. Meanwhile, I will try to reproduce the issue on the live environment.
okay lets then check how this translation is overwritten with some other value as it happens in your case.
So string translation automatic translation does not happen automatically, there is no such feature, you would actually need to go to WPML > Translation Dashboard > Other texts, find your string and send it for automatic translation.
There is no such feature or option where string would be re-translated in background by itself. Can you check with your colleagues that nobody did such thing or there is no such cron action or similar that tigers automatic translation of this string? Let me know.
As mentioned before this translation is saved in your website folder directory as a file, so maybe there is some cron / github that re-sync this files or deletes them, so actual done translation are rewritten with old previous files?
To check further on staging site I have dummy translated kasteeloost_extra > Reserveer een tafe to "Reserve a table - new" and lets see if this reverts to some other translation.
Hopefully if it does this will help us find any clues why this happens.
