Suddenly most translated pages show a 404-page

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

Problem:
The client is experiencing 404 errors on their website for pages, products, categories, and other items translated into Dutch after a full WPML reset and manual deletion of Dutch translations from English overview pages.
Solution:
We discovered that the issue was due to the missing '/products/' part in the URL for Dutch translations, which had a Draft status. To resolve this, we advised the client to check the status of the pages and ensure they are set to Published. This action resolved the 404 errors and displayed the correct Dutch translations.

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Tagged: Not WPML issue

This topic contains 2 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Rene 1 month ago.

Assisted by: Itamar.

Author	Posts
May 21, 2025 at 9:43 am
Rene	Background of the issue: Our client is translating their website using WPML. Until the 13th of May, everything was running smoothly, but since then, most of the pages, products, categories, and other items translated to Dutch show up as 404-pages. At the start of May, we did a full WPML reset due to issues with automatic translations. After the reset, Dutch translations appeared in the English overview pages, which we manually deleted. Our client is now working on new Dutch translations. Symptoms: Most translated pages show a 404-page error. Questions: Could it be that the issue is related to one of the latest updates? Would a rollback be a temporary fix? Do you have other suggestions or options for resolving the 404 errors?
May 21, 2025 at 10:07 am
May 21, 2025 at 2:21 pm #17058069
Itamar WPML Supporter since 02/2016 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Jerusalem (GMT+03:00)	Hi, I checked things on your site, updated some related plugins, and tried all the troubleshooting options in WPML -> Support -> Troubleshooting. Unfortunately, nothing has helped so far. But I noticed something essential that is the cause of this problem. In English, the slug of the page you gave me as an example is /products/cover-materials/natural-finish/; however, in Dutch, it is /omslagmaterialen/natuurfinish/. So, the /products/ part is missing in Dutch, whether you wanted to have it as /products/ or as a translation in Dutch. This explains the reason for getting a 404 page. I checked the page's editing screen and could not figure out how you have added /products/ to the page slug. Please explain how you added this part to the slug. Did you add it with your custom theme? Regards, Itamar.
May 22, 2025 at 8:25 am #17060019
Rene	Good morning Itamar, I think you're right about the slugs. Nice work! The /products/ and /producten/ parts were missing from the URL because the pages had a Draft status. It's a mystery to me why, but now I just set their statuses back to Published and now a lot of 404's are gone and the correct Dutch translation is showing up. Thank you very much for pointing this out. Very helpful once again 🙂 It seems like it is solved for now! I will mark the ticket as 'Solved'. Thanks again and have a nice day! Kind regards, Martin Ulenreef Mooi Online