Editing a post category so as the category is empty

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

Problem:
Background of the issue:
I want to delete a Category so I previously edited the posts that contained it successfully. I also use Breeze and constantly purge cache so that nothing gets stuck.

Symptoms:
I see 0 posts on the category view for English but 6 on the Portuguese category page, and if I click there are actually no posts in there.

Questions:
Why are there still posts showing in the Portuguese category page after editing?
How can I ensure the category shows 0 posts in all languages?

Solution:
It seems the issue was related to caching. Once the caching plugin was disabled we were able to run the cleanup steps and the numbers were corrected.

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Last updated by alejandroA-19 6 days, 22 hours ago.

Assisted by: Lauren.

Author	Posts
March 7, 2025 at 8:31 pm #16789957
alejandroA-19	Background of the issue: I want to delete a Category so I previously edited the posts that contained it successfully. I also use Breeze and constantly purge cache so that nothing gets stuck. Symptoms: I see 0 posts on the category view for English but 6 on the Portuguese category page, and if I click there are actually no posts in there. Questions: Why are there still posts showing in the Portuguese category page after editing? How can I ensure the category shows 0 posts in all languages?
March 8, 2025 at 4:28 am #16790716
alejandroA-19	Hello I was supposed to get instructions so as to make a copy of the site to your cloudways server but I never got that email. Please send it so you can take a look at this Thanks AA
March 8, 2025 at 4:13 pm #16791569
alejandroA-19	hello?
March 10, 2025 at 4:11 pm #16797463
Lauren Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	Please see my previous private reply and let me know once the migration has completed. Thanks!
March 11, 2025 at 8:39 pm #16804061
alejandroA-19	I finally made a CLONE so you can work on it and have the details for you but I don't have the REPLY PRIVATELY option, how can I send it?
March 11, 2025 at 10:09 pm #16804269
Lauren Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	I have marked the next reply as private so you can share credentials in the private fields.
March 13, 2025 at 2:15 am #16809622
alejandroA-19	are you working on it? Could it be that when you use WPML on that site it makes me get this on mine? look at screenshot and here I paste the ERROR LOG: EVENT: ATE Server Communication DESCRIPTION: WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. EXTRA DATA: {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/check_pairs","requestArgs":{"method":"POST","body":[{"source_language":"en","target_languages":["br"]}]},"status":426} 2025/03/12 6:16:42 PM
March 13, 2025 at 7:31 pm #16813524
Lauren Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	I was able to reset the count for the translated category by running the following query: UPDATE wp_term_taxonomy SET count = 0 WHERE taxonomy = 'na-br'; I then created a test post in Portuguese and assigned the N/A. The count showed correctly as 1. I then delete the Portuguese post and deleted it permanently from the trash. Now, the count shows as 0 as expected. Be sure to make a backup of your site before running this query in the database. Please let me know if you need any further assistance and I will be happy to help.
March 13, 2025 at 7:44 pm #16813536
alejandroA-19	so this is a bug? it happened before in the past with other categories... how can I prevent that from happening and also, I don't know how to run that query, where should I go to do something like that? I am not a programmer I would appreciate directions on this so I can fix the LIVE site and continue working on it
March 13, 2025 at 8:43 pm #16813621
Lauren Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	I wasn't able to recreate it, so I'm not certain it's a bug in general, but perhaps something was stuck on your site and the count needed to be reset. However, if you are able to repeat the steps and it happens again, please let me know the exact steps to reproduce (for example, if you are creating a new category, or updating a previous one, where you delete it from, etc). The more details the better. As for the sql script to reset the count, this is done in the database which you can access via your cpanel or by using a plugin such as Adminer. Just make sure you have a full backup before making any database changes.
March 13, 2025 at 9:07 pm #16813702
alejandroA-19	Yes, I think it's a bug, I ended up deleting the category, but I would like to know how to run that command on WP ADMINER if you could be so kind of explaining me so if it happens again I can solve it on my end. Thanks
March 14, 2025 at 2:12 am #16814115
alejandroA-19	Look... just now I was working on LIVE SITE and I noticed the portuguese category AERONAVES (24) which are all duplicates of AIRCRAFT (23). So I clicked the 24 and 23 one page on Portuguese the other in English and compared and both have 23 posts exactly the same. You can see the front end (see attachments) they display exactly the same. But for some reason again the miss-match which makes me wonder like something's off. So now this is twice in the same week. I tried updating to the last WPML version but that was just worse, everything worked awful so I had to restore backup because at least this old version works more a less fine. Can you look into this again to see if you find something off? Maybe you could delete all POSTS (not pages) translations on the staging site I provided and update everything and re-duplicate all translations to see if everything works with new updates? I am out of ideas.
March 14, 2025 at 2:23 am #16814161
alejandroA-19	so I turned off cache plugins and clicked everything on the wpml support page and the number went back to 23... have no idea what happens...
March 18, 2025 at 1:44 am #16827580
Lauren Supporter Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	If the number is correct after disabling the cache and running the cleanup steps, then the issue is probably related to caching. You will need to update to the most recent version, so if there are other issues after updating, please open up a support ticket for that issue specifically so that we can test with the latest version of WPML plugins. Let me know once you are able to update, and if the issue returns with the cache disabled.
March 18, 2025 at 1:18 pm #16830545
alejandroA-19	Thanks, I'll be closing the ticket although the issues still persist but the support is taking longer than usual and also the plugin has lots of stuff like this where things doesnt go smooth. I guess this is related to 7 years of using the plugin in this site and suddenly wpml looses track and get mixed and some things start to go south. But nevermind, I need to keep going so I'll close all my tickets and will reopen them with video captures and as specific as I can so I can improve the help I get. There were so many issues that all my tickets got mixed up and that was no good, so don't worry, we'll continue on further tickets. Thanks