This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: The client's WooCommerce store experienced a slowdown after installing multiple languages using WPML. The client considered removing WPML Media and untranslated strings but was unsure if these changes would significantly improve site speed.
Solution: We advised the client not to use PHP 8.3 as it is still in beta for WordPress and could slow down the site. Instead, we recommended using PHP 8.1. We suggested monitoring the site with the Query Monitor plugin to identify slow and duplicate queries. For managing strings, we directed the client to WPML > Support > Troubleshooting to delete unused strings and provided guidance on how to delete strings from WPML -> Strings Translation, which can be read more about here.
Additionally, we found that WPML Media does not significantly impact performance unless used for translating images specifically for different languages. We also noted that the site's hosting might contribute to performance issues due to resource limitations or database call restrictions, especially with increased content from multiple languages.
If these steps do not resolve the issue or if the solution seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix,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 here.
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Background of the issue:
I want to speed up my WooCommerce store, hidden link, which has become slower after installing multiple languages. I am considering removing WPML Media and untranslated strings. However, I think more is needed.
I have followed multiple forum posts and documentations and have done several optimizations including using PHP 8.3.10, setting PHP memory limit to 1024M, using Litespeed cache, updating all plugins, themes, and WordPress, using MariaDB v. 11.4.3, using pure SSL (without helper plugin), clearing out big and unnecessary autoloaded options (the remaining is primary WPML), installing and running 'Index WP MySQL For Speed' plugin, disabling 'display as translated' (Fallback mode), disabling 'Adjust IDs for multilingual functionality', pressing 'Cleanup and optimize string tables' and 'Clear invalid strings' options, and turning off 'Track where strings appear on the site'.
Symptoms:
The WooCommerce store has become slower after installing multiple languages.
Questions:
Should I remove WPML Media to speed up my site?
How can I identify and remove untranslated strings and strings that are not needed?
How much difference would these changes make in terms of site speed?
What else can I do? I think more is needed?
Languages: English (English )Spanish (Español )Italian (Italiano )
Timezone: Europe/Rome (GMT+01:00)
Hello!
I'm going to help you while a supporter takes you case.
1) Do not use PHP 8.3 because that version is still in beta in WordPress and will probably slow your site down since it's likely many of your plugins will start creating deprecation notifications or similar. please use 8.1 at most for now unless you're sure that all the plugins work nicely with 8.2, but do not go over that for now.
2) Monitor the logs with a plugin like "Query Monitor" to see if there are too many queries, if they are duplicate and slow.
3) Go to WPML > Support > Troubleshooting > delete unused strings
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- WPML Media should not make any change to your performance, however if you're not really translating images (using different images for specific images or media by languages) then you can safely uninstall it anyways because it's likely you won't be using it.
- Deleting untranslated strings could help make the DB lighter
It's likely the problem is on the hosting side (resources or DB call restrictions) but that depends on the hosting and plan you use, since more languages means that your site will have more pages in the DB, more content in general and there may be a few more queries happening more often than before.
However, try what i mentioned and let us know what happened. please send us a screenshot of the query results.
1. I have downgraded to PHP 8.1.
2. I have done some research with Query Monitor. See attached files. The screenshots is just some example from two different pages. Please let me know if you need more.
3. I do not see that setting under troubleshooting?
How can I more systematically delete untranslated and unused strings?
Thanks for the screenshots. I'm consulting our second-tier supporters about this.
My colleague referred to the "Clean and optimize string tables" and "Clear invalid strings" options in the troubleshooting section. Please see the attached screenshot. You can also delete unused strings from WPML -> Strings Translation. You can read about it here.
Please let me know if you have observed this problem on the admin or front-end pages.
Can you please send me the links to those pages?
I must say that I've just navigated through pages and products on your site, and everything was loading quickly. I don't experience a performance issue.
If you need further help with this, please share the access details to your site with me. I'm enabling a private message for the following reply.
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We have strict policies regarding privacy and access to your information. Please see: https://wpml.org/purchase/support-policy/privacy-and-security-when-providing-debug-information-for-support/ **IMPORTANT**
- - Please backup the site files and database before providing us access. --
-- If you have a staging site where the problem can be reproduced, it is better to share access to the staging site.--
In addition to the above, please allow us to take a copy of your site. For this, I must install a plugin like Duplicator or All In One Migration. Please let me know if you agree.
A private message is enabled for the following reply.
I have done the "Clean and optimize string tables" and "Clear invalid strings" options.
The performance issues are in the front end. I am primary referring to the analyses from Google PageSpeed Insights which shows results as low as 35 for the translated content (front page). Other content is better (50-60), but still too low in my opinion. And the issue was better before installing WPML.
Also, X-Ray analyses generated by my host shows that sitepress-multilingual-cms is by far the biggest contributor to load time.
Original language:
Front page: hidden link
Product category page: hidden link
Product page: hidden link
Translated language:
Front page: hidden link
Product category page: hidden link
Product page: hidden link
I have given you access to the WordPress admin. Please note that the website has plenty of traffic and several orders every day.
Because the site is live and there are massive amounts of customer data on the site, I cannot allow you to transfer the data away from the server.
Our second-tier supporter has checked the information you provided.
Based on the analysis, it's difficult to draw a definitive conclusion; however, the Google Performance Console provides some insights. It indicates that the Flatsome theme, Duracelltomi Google Tag Manager, and Complianz may be contributing JavaScript that impacts the page processing time.
To conduct a more detailed performance analysis and troubleshoot the TTFB (Time to First Byte) slowness, we would need access to a package.
I know you said you don't allow us to take a copy of your site. However, if you want to investigate this issue, we must have a copy.
If you need further help with this, please share the access details to your site with me.
I'm enabling a private message for the following reply.
You can upload your site's package to a service like Google Drive or Dropbox and share the link with me. I'll enable private messages for the following reply.
I haven't received an answer from you yet. However, I wanted to share the following information from our second-tier supporter.
An important point to note when a client blames WPML for performance issues because some profiling tool points the finger at WPML is that WPML loads early, typically before other plugins, and that means that any other plugin that uses Composer will "offload" some of its work to WPML's instance of Composer, making it look better and WPML look worse. On a site with a lot of plugins, many of which use Composer, the effect can be significant.
That may be relevant with the X-Ray analysis the client refers to where they say, "sitepress-multilingual-cms is by far the biggest contributor to load time".
Here is the text from the CodeProfiler Pro plugin that warns about this problem when interpreting results:
Composer, a tool for dependency management in PHP, is included in many popular plugins and themes. It is used to autoload PHP classes. Code Profiler will inform you if two or more activated plugins use it because you will need to take it into consideration when reading and interpreting the results. Let's take an example:
Assuming you have four plugins, #1, #2, #3 and #4. Both plugins #1 and #4 include and require Composer. WordPress will start and load plugin #1, which will run an instance of Composer to load its classes. Immediately after, WordPress will load plugins #2 and #3. Then, it will load plugin #4, which too will need to load its classes. However, plugin #4 will not start a new instance of Composer but, instead, will rely on the one from plugin #1 to load its own classes.
As a result, the execution time of plugin #1 will increase (its instance of Composer is used to load classes for plugin #4 too), while the execution time of plugin #4 will decrease (it doesn't need to start a new instance of Composer). Therefore, if you have a dozen or more plugins using Composer, it is important to take into consideration that the execution time of plugin #1 may appear much higher than other plugins.
I hope this information helps you to understand the issue you see on hidden link.
Unfortunately, I cannot send the Duplicator package. 50.000 customer's data should not be stored anywhere else than our servers.
I do understand the Composer-argument.
Another thing that has come to my mind: Is it possible to reduce the size of the autoloaded settings from WPML? Settings from WPML is laying at 1st and 4th place when looking at the biggest option values.
Hello,
My name is Carlos and I will continue working on this ticket while my colleague Itamar is on vacation.
According to our 2nd tier specialists, more in-depth analysis will be needed to determine the cause of the performance issue. We will need a copy of the site and the URLs you use to test the performance to achieve this. I understand that the site contains the information of your clients, to avoid sharing this info you can create a staging site with a copy of the production site, delete all the client information, and then share a Duplicator copy of the staging site without the client data. That way we will be able to provide the site copy to our 2nd tier and no client data will be shared.
I have set your next message private so you can securely share the copy.
I understand. Is there any other way you could give us a copy of the site that our 2nd tier specialists can analyze to determine the cause of the performance issue?
