[Resolved] Templates not translating, but only in one langauge
This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.
Problem: You are trying to translate the header and footer of your Full Site Editing (FSE) theme into multiple languages using WPML. While other languages are translated successfully, the Finnish translation displays issues. Specifically, the header looks different and, on certain pages, the header and footer disappear entirely. Solution: The issue arises because the Finnish “header” template was initially created as an original rather than a translation of the Norwegian template. To resolve this, you should: 1. Copy the content from the Norwegian template (ID 7704). 2. Paste it into the Finnish template (ID 8371), replacing its existing content. 3. Apply this process to other languages to ensure all templates match the Norwegian original.
If this solution does not resolve your issue or seems outdated, we recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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 problems persist, please open a new support ticket.
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Background of the issue:
I am trying to translate the header and footer of my Full Site Editing (FSE) theme into multiple languages using WPML. I have successfully applied translations for all other languages on the site. The issue can be seen on this page: hidden link. The main page is hidden link.
Symptoms:
When switching to Finnish, the header looks different compared to what I configured. On certain Finnish pages, such as hidden link, the header and footer disappear completely. All other languages work flawlessly, and I followed the exact same process for Finnish.
Questions:
Why does the header look different when switching to Finnish?
Why do the header and footer disappear on certain Finnish pages?
Welcome to the WPML support forum. I will do my best to assist you in resolving the issue.
Please try the following steps after creating a full site backup, and then check if the bug still exists:
1) Upgrade to the latest version of WPML (4.8.1 series).
2) Make a small edit to the content of the page in the original language, then update it to refresh the translation settings.
3) Translate the page into Finnish again.
If the issue persists, please create a post or page for testing, translate it into Finnish, and confirm whether the bug is still present.
Thank you for the updates. Please fill in the private details fields after a full site backup. I would like to access the admin area of your site for further checking. For more information about our privacy policies and the sharing of private information, please take a look at the following links.
Thank you for the updates and for sharing the login information. I have enabled the option “Store a language cookie to support language filtering for AJAX” under WPML >> Languages >> Language filtering for AJAX operations, but the issue still persists.
To help track this further, I have a couple of questions:
Header and footer management
How are you currently managing the site’s header and footer?
I noticed the footer template listed under Advanced → Footer, but it is not selected in the Settings (please see the attached images for reference).
Could you please share more details about your header and footer settings? This information will help us identify the issue more clearly.
Theme customisation
Are you using a fully customised theme?
Also, please tries the following troubleshooting steps after a full site backup {mandatory} and make sure the issue is existing or not.
1) Go to WPML >> Support page, click on the Troubleshooting link (blue link in the middle of the page)
2) On the Troubleshooting page, please click on the following options of the *Clean up* section. Wait for confirmation of processing after each one.
- Clear the cache in WPML
- Remove ghost entries from the translation tables
- Fix element_type collation
- Set language information
- Fix WPML tables collation
- Assign translation status to duplicated content
- Fix terms count
- Fix post type assignment
- Cleanup and optimize string tables
This is a block theme developed by us, using the full site editor. The footer editor is not used, and we're using the full site editor footer template.
To actually make the header & footer display on multiple languages, the header and footer FSE template needs to be translated (weird). The place to edit this is in the default WordPress full site editor.
I've tried to both duplicate the header template, and manually translate the FSE gutenberg strings, neither updates on the finnish language, but on all other langauges.
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
I checked languages folder for mo/po file discrepancies vs language code and hreflang, but I'm not seeing anything unusual.
Can we try this? hidden link
On this sandbox, can you install your theme and create simple header/footer and translate it (or at least duplicate as that will be quicker, but should still show the issue)?
I will check with our 2nd tier then to see if this is perhaps a compatibility issue or a bug in WPML.
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
Can you upload your theme into wp-content/themes into hidden link so I could try installing it?
If that fails, to troubleshoot this problem, I'll install the Duplicator plugin and generate packages for further debugging purposes. I'll ensure to exclude all media files to maintain a minimal package size (I would do this on hidden link)
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
I see. Ok, how about Duplicator approach then?
I'll install the Duplicator plugin and generate packages for further debugging purposes. I'll ensure to exclude all media files to maintain a minimal package size (I would do this on hidden link)
Languages: English (English )German (Deutsch )French (Français )
Timezone: Europe/Zagreb (GMT+01:00)
I can create Duplicator package, permissions are sufficient. However I went on to check this again before escalating and I can see that header and footer show properly now.
Can you check again and let me know if I am missing something?
I check on both hidden link and hidden link but not sure I see something missing compared to the original language for either footer or the header.
Can you send me some screenshots to illustrate what is missing?
It seems like the header is back on the pages, that's good.
However, the header menu does not update on the finish language, you can verify this by clicking the language switcher on any other language (the button top right on the navigation bar), where it works on any other language, and it does not work, and look different on the finish version.
Also the styling changes, e.g. font-size, logo size, etc does not update on the finish header version, even when I duplicate the FSE templates.
Steps I've tried to solve this issue:
- Duplicate the header from the source language (Norwegian), to Finnish. (Both the header template, and the navigation template).
- Manually translate the Finnish language, by copy-pasting the fields, and marking all the translations as complete, and accepting the translation
I've done this by going to Translation Dashboard -> selecting the chosen templates (Header, Sidetoppmeny, sekundærmeny) and sending them to either translation, or duplicating.
Please ask any clarifying question if I'm missing some important information you need to understand what I've done 🙂
