Background of the issue:
I was trying to update to WPML 4.8.4, but after the update, we started experiencing severe slowdowns and UI freezing in both WordPress admin (prod), dev environment, and local env. The issue is similar to what is described in this ticket: https://wpml.org/forums/topic/wpml-4-8-4-freezes-admin-interface/. After some investigation, we found that it's a known problem and many users have the same issues.
Symptoms:
The interface freezes when I try to edit content in any WPML-related screen or a WPML-translated page/post. The input becomes unresponsive for several seconds when placing the cursor inside editable fields. No error messages appear in the browser console, and PHP logs do not show WPML-related errors. Downgrading the plugin resolves the issue.
Questions:
Do you have the solution to this problem?
This ticket has been inactive for quite a while. I didn't get a reply from you. So, I've transformed this chat into a support ticket because you may still need our help.
After your last comment in the chat, I suggested the following.
If the problem persists, please share the WordPress debug log (not WPML debug information).
Please check this page for instructions.
To enable it, open your wp-config.php file and look for
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
Change it to:
define('WP_DEBUG', true);
// Enable Debug logging to the /wp-content/debug.log file
define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true);
// Disable display of errors and warnings
define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
@ini_set('display_errors', 0);
After this, repeat the action that causes the problem on your site - visit the admin pages that get frozen. In this case, the errors will be saved to a debug.log log file inside the /wp-content/ directory. Then please share the errors with us. If the debug.log was already active, please only share the error you encountered during your test to keep the log concise and avoid unrelated errors.
You might also find errors in the browser's console that indicate the problem. If you find any, please also share them with us.
We’ve increased the WP_MEMORY_LIMIT on the production site to 512M and tested multiple WPML versions to rule out any environment-related issues. We tried 4.8.0, 4.8.1, 4.8.2, 4.8.3, 4.8.4, 4.8.5, and the latest 4.8.6 — all of them show the same latency problem in the WordPress admin panel.
However, once we downgraded to version 4.7.6, the issue disappeared completely. It looks like the problem is introduced somewhere in the 4.8.* release line. Could you please investigate this on your side?
Also, in all 4.8.* versions this new badge looks odd hidden link, and it doesn’t seem to provide any clear or useful information to the user hidden link
This icon informs the user about progress with automatic translation.
1. Have you tried my suggestions to enable WordPress debug.log and found any errors that you can share?
2. Is your site now on the latest WPML version, or have you downgraded to 4.7.6?
Please answer my question, and if you need further help, please share the access details for your site with me. Also, please allow me 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. I'm enabling a private message for the following reply. Privacy and Security Policy
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 back up 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.--
1. The debug.log shows only warnings and notices, there are no errors.
2. We tried the latest version on our dev site, but for now we’ve downgraded to 4.7.6, as it’s impossible to work normally with the 4.8.* version of the WPML plugin.
We’re unable to share site credentials or make a copy of the site.
What if we don’t want to use automatic translation and want to keep things as they were before? How can we turn off this functionality?
Also, the 4.8.* versions are still causing significant admin latency on our site. Do you have any solution for this?
You asked: "What if we don’t want to use automatic translation and want to keep things as they were before? How can we turn off this functionality?"
I don't know how things were on your site before. But if you mean going back to using the Classic Translation Editor, you can do so in WPML -> Settings -> Translation Editor. Please see the attached screenshot cte.jpg.
Automatic translation is optional. You don't have to use it. You can still use the Advanced Translation Editor without automatically translating the content. The full settings for automatic translation are in WPML -> Settings -> automatic translation. But before going there, you should check in WPML -> Translation Dashboard, and if Translate Everything Automatically is active, turn it off. Please see the attached screenshot trans-everything-auto.jpg.
You also asked: "Also, the 4.8.* versions are still causing significant admin latency on our site. Do you have any solution for this?"
Given that you can't share access to or a copy of your site, I can only suggest that you debug the performance issue using the Query Monitor plugin, as we explain in the following guide: https://wpml.org/faq/how-to-debug-performance-problems/. Then please share slow or repetitive queries related to WPML, Strings Translation, or any of our other plugins.
we didn't switched to the Advanced Translation Editor, and still using the Classic one, but why then this badge hidden link has appeared in the 4.8.* versions?
We did filtering, and in our case the list of automatic translations is empty, so nothing to cancel.
Also we clicked 'Synchronize local job ids with ATE jobs' and 'Synchronize translators and translation managers with ATE' in the troubleshooting page, but this badge hidden link is still visible on the site. How to remove it from the admin panel? we don't need it and it doesn't provide any useful information.
Please go to WPML -> Support -> Advanced Translation Editor - Error Logs.
It should be on your site: hidden link.
There are probably errors there.
Please copy and paste here the most recent errors.
And also, please take a screenshot and share it with me.
Please note that my weekends are Friday to Saturday. If you need further assistance, I'll be available to continue checking this issue and helping you next week.
For now on the on prod we downgraded to WPML 4.7.6, and everything works smoothly, but on dev site we're using the latest 4.8.6 version and we still have latency with the admin panel. We recorded the latency behaviour and it's impossible to upload a video here.
on the prod site we in Advanced Translation Editor - Error Logs we don't have any recent logs, but on the dev we have some of them:
2025/12/11 12:12:19 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ams.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/website_contexts","requestArgs":[],"status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/en","requestArgs":{"method":"GET"},"status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/check_pairs","requestArgs":{"method":"POST","body":[{"source_language":"en","target_languages":["en","en-ca","en-gb","fr"]}]},"extraMessage":"WPML Failed to check language pairs","status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/check_pairs","requestArgs":{"method":"POST","body":[{"source_language":"en","target_languages":["en","en-ca","en-gb","fr"]}]},"extraMessage":"WPML Failed to check language pairs","status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/en","requestArgs":{"method":"GET"},"status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/check_pairs","requestArgs":{"method":"POST","body":[{"source_language":"en","target_languages":["en","en-ca","en-gb","fr"]}]},"extraMessage":"WPML Failed to check language pairs","status":426}
2025/12/11 12:12:18 PM ATE Server Communication WPML has detected a change in your site's URL. To continue translating your site, go to your WordPress Dashboard and tell WPML if your site has been moved or copied. 0 0 {"url":"https:\/\/ate.wpml.org\/api\/wpml\/languages\/check_pairs","requestArgs":{"method":"POST","body":[{"source_language":"en","target_languages":["en","en-ca","en-gb","fr"]}]},"extraMessage":"WPML Failed to check language pairs","status":426}
If you are unable to share with me access to the dev site, please try my following suggestion from December 4.
Given that you can't share access to or a copy of your site, I can only suggest that you debug the performance issue using the Query Monitor plugin, as we explain in the following guide: https://wpml.org/faq/how-to-debug-performance-problems/. Then please share slow or repetitive queries related to WPML, Strings Translation, or any of our other plugins.
Also, I noticed that this badge hidden link
doesn’t appear immediately after the plugin installation — it shows up only after some time. When the badge is not visible, I don’t experience any freezing in the admin panel. As soon as the badge appears, the admin panel starts to freeze. Note that in the settings we're still using Classic Translation Editor
Thanks for sharing the error from the Query Monitor plugin with me.
I've shared all the information we have so far about this problem with our second-tier supporters. When I have their reply about it, I'll share it with you.
