Background of the issue:
I am trying to show English translations of all pages on my website. WPML was configured correctly, and translated content exists in the admin panel. The issue can be seen on this page: hidden link
Symptoms:
The English version of the translated page is not visible on the frontend. The page displays in Russian, even when English is selected.
Questions:
Why are the translated pages not showing on the frontend?
How can I make the English translations visible on the frontend?
I would like to kindly follow up and emphasize that this issue affects every page on the website — not just the homepage. You can visit any English version of the site and the result is the same: Russian content is displayed instead of the translated English version.
Please investigate this issue manually by browsing the site from your end. If necessary, I’m ready to provide full administrator access to help you troubleshoot this more effectively.
Welcome to WPML support. I will answer this ticket before the ticket is assigned to one of my colleagues.
Would you please add a new page as a sample and add a simple text there and finisht he translation and get back to us with the link?
Meanwhile 'd appreciate it if you could follow the steps below:
- IMPORTANT STEP! Create a backup of your website. Or better approach will be to test this on a copy/staging version of the website to avoid any disruption of a live website.
- Go to "WordPress Dashboard > WPML > Support > Troubleshooting (link)".
- Click the buttons annotated in the screenshot below one by one and wait for each button process to finish: https://wpml.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/7206941-buttons.png
Finally, check if the issue happens on a minimal installation:
- IMPORTANT STEP! Create a backup of your website. Or better approach will be to test this on a copy/staging version of the website to avoid any disruption of a live website.
- Switch to the default theme such as "TwentyTwenty" by going to "WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > themes".
- Go to "WordPress Dashboard > Plugins" and deactivate all plugins except WPML and its add-ons.
- Check if you can still recreate the issue.
- If not, re-activate your plugins one by one and check the issue each time to find out the plugin that causes the problem.
Created a test page and translated it — the issue persists.
Ran all the WPML troubleshooting buttons (cache, ghost entries, element_type, etc.).
Checked and confirmed that English is not hidden.
My profile is set to display hidden languages.
The issue persists even after disabling plugins and switching to a default theme on a staging copy.
Unfortunately, the translated pages still do not appear on the frontend. Please let me know how we can proceed next, or if you need admin access to investigate directly.
I’ve carefully followed and completed all the steps you suggested, including:
Creating a test page and translating it (still not visible),
Running all troubleshooting actions,
Verifying that no languages are hidden (globally and per user),
Testing with plugins deactivated and a default theme enabled.
The problem remains unresolved. At this point, further testing from our side is no longer productive. To move forward efficiently, we kindly ask that someone from your team logs in and checks the issue directly.
Please let us know which access details you need. We are ready to provide full administrator credentials or staging access, whichever is preferred.
When I visit your site's homepage at hidden link, I expect to see the Russian version, but instead, I'm being redirected to the English version at hidden link. When I inspect this with the browser's developer tool, I can see a 301 (Moved Permanently) redirection. Please see the attached screenshot. I wonder why it happens and suspect it might be related to the problem.
Have you published and made the Russian homepage?
Do you have an idea why this redirection occurs?
Perhaps it's something you've configured in the .htaccess file of your WordPress installation?
If you require additional assistance with this, please share the access details to your site with me. Please also share FTP access details. 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.--
Before installing WPML, our site worked exactly as expected — the homepage and structure were functioning correctly with English as the intended default. However, after setting up WPML, the default language switched to Russian due to how the plugin handled the existing content, and now we’re experiencing problems with redirection and language visibility.
We do want English to remain the main/default language on the site. Russian is secondary.
We haven’t intentionally set any redirections — there’s no custom .htaccess rule causing this. The 301 redirection you saw is unexpected and only started happening after WPML was installed.
At this point, we really need your help with correcting the setup so that:
English is restored as the true default language
Pages in English show properly without redirects
Translations (like Russian) remain accessible but not forced
We would greatly appreciate it if you or your team could log in directly and help us fix this configuration. The issue is critical for us and we’re standing by with access already provided.
I've reviewed your site and identified the following issues.
1. In WPML -> Languages -> Site Languages, Russian, and not English, is set as the default language. You need to change it to English if you want English to be the default language of your site.
2. Pages under the English language also include pages with Russian content and vice versa.
3. In Settings -> Reading, the set homepage is labeled as 'English' but contains content in Russian. Moreover, it is not translated.
I recorded a video while reviewing your site. In the video, I also explain what you should do. Please watch it here: hidden link.
