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

Problem:
If you're experiencing issues where the WPML language switcher does not change the language on category or sub-category pages, and it defaults to English despite having translations set up, the issue might be with your custom code.
Solution:
We found that the 'Product Category Archive Description' snippet is overwriting WPML's permalink rules for categories, which causes the language switcher to malfunction. To resolve this, you can try deactivating the snippet to see if the language switcher then works as expected. If you need the functionality provided by the snippet, consider rewriting it to comply with WPML's multilingual requirements. You can find the necessary guidelines and hooks on our documentation pages:

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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 issues persist, please open a new support ticket.

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This topic contains 1 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Lucas Vidal de Andrade 2 months ago.

Assisted by: Lucas Vidal de Andrade.

Author Posts
December 1, 2025 at 2:03 pm

rytisS-2

WPML language switcher doesn`t change the language when category or sub-category pages are opened. It shows English menu by default and change language to the appropriate language (polish is set up at them moment) but only on home page. When page is one of the categories page or any other page(not home) - it doesn`t change the language. Despite translations and all the settings are in place.

December 1, 2025 at 3:50 pm #17623216

Lucas Vidal de Andrade
WPML Supporter since 11/2023

Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português )

Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+01:00)

Hello there,

I was able to pinpoint the cause of the issue.

Your snippet "Product Category Archive Description" is overwriting WPML permalink rules for categories, breaking it. You can check by deactivating it, the language switcher works as expected.

We don't cover custom code in our support, so I recommend that you either deactivate it, or rewrite it using the proper multilingual requirements from WPML. They can be found here:

https://wpml.org/documentation/related-projects/woocommerce-multilingual/wcml-hooks-reference/

https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-coding-api/wpml-hooks-reference/

Let me know if you have any questions.