[Waiting for user feedback] WPML Translation Dashboard stuck on “Loading items…” – possible ATE/queue issue

Hi Osama,

1) I can't find this anymore, where can I find it?

2) I will ask the client.

Best,

Erik

Hi Osama,

Thank you again for checking the staging environment.

I want to provide a clear update, because several important differences between the live and staging environments explain why the issue could not be reproduced earlier.

1. The Issue only occurs on the live site

On the live site:

The Translation Dashboard never loads any items → it stays stuck on “Items loading…” indefinitely.

No posts, pages, products, or other content ever appear.

I have attached a screenshot showing this exact behaviour. (Screenshot A)

2. Additional symptoms on the LIVE site that do NOT occur on staging

These are new findings that strongly suggest incorrect language assignment or a corrupted translation mapping:

A. Pages list defaults to English instead of Dutch
When I open Pages → All Pages, the list is shown in English by default, even though Dutch is the main language.
(Screenshot B)

B. When clicking the translation arrow, I am sent directly into the EN version in the standard WordPress editor
The permalink becomes /en/…

WPML shows a warning saying I’m editing a translation outside the Translation Editor

This does NOT happen on staging
(Screenshot C)

These symptoms indicate that source/translation relationships or admin-language detection on the LIVE site are inconsistent or corrupted, which would explain why the translation dashboard cannot load.

3. Staging site behaves differently and works normally

On the staging environment, the Translation Dashboard loads correctly and displays structure as expected.

This means the issue is specific to the live database.

Because the live and staging environments behave differently, I understand that you may need access to the live environment in order to investigate further.

4. Permissions

You have my permission to:

access the live WordPress admin
deactivate/activate plugins if necessary
adjust WPML settings
take a local copy of the site for debugging
inspect translation queues, jobs, and database locks
A full backup will be created before access is granted.

5. Please confirm what access you require

Please let me know which credentials you prefer:

WP Admin (live)
SFTP (live)
or both

Once confirmed, I will send you the credentials immediately.

Thank you again for your assistance — I hope the screenshots help clarify the situation.

Best regards,

Hesther
____

Ps. Is there a way this client can reply directly with you? Now i'm sending al the emails through. But I don't want to give my login of this account.

Regrads, Erik

Hi,

I have a life-time account so this isn't possible, I just read. 🙁

I will ask the client again.

Thank you!

Best,

Erik

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

I have flushed the site cache as suggested. This resolved only one symptom: the translation editor now loads again.

However, the core issue remains unchanged, which confirms that this is not a cache-related problem.

Current behavior:

– Translations still redirect to the WordPress editor with warnings about editing outside the translation editor

– “Update English translation” keeps appearing

– Translation jobs cannot be assigned or cleared (“job could not be assigned to translator”)

– The issue persists regardless of editor choice

Important background:

– These pages were originally translated using the classic WPML translation editor

– I have always worked with the classic WPML editor from the beginning

– The pages are fully built with Elementor

– No manual editing outside WPML has been done intentionally

– The site’s default (source) language is Dutch (NL); English is the secondary language.

Testing performed:

I have tested both translation editor options:

– the classic WPML translation editor

– the Advanced Translation Editor (ATE)

The issue persists in both cases.

Affected pages:

– Hesther van Doornum (homepage)

– Biography

Conclusion:

This is not an editor-selection issue.

It appears to be a locked or inconsistent translation/workflow state affecting legacy classic WPML translations at database level.

What I need:

Please reset the translation status for these specific pages at database level so that:

– the translations behave normally again

– no translation jobs or update loops remain

– no editor warnings are triggered

– no content or Elementor layouts are modified or overwritten

I am not requesting any content changes — only a reset of the translation/editor status.

Thank you for your help.

Hi Osama,

Thank you for fixing the editor selection - the pages now open correctly again and the previous blocking behaviour has been resolved.

I tested the same workflow (a small edit in the Dutch source followed by publish) on another Elementor page (“In Opdracht”), and there WPML behaves exactly as expected: the translation is correctly marked as “needs update” and the updated Dutch source content appears in the Translation Editor.

The remaining issue is now clearly isolated to two pages only:
– Home (“Hesther van Doornum”)
– Biography

For these two pages:
– After updating and publishing the Dutch (source) content,
– the English translation is not marked as “needs update”, and
– when opening the English translation (via the pencil), the WPML Translation Editor does not show the updated Dutch source content (e.g. newly added internal links).

At the moment, these pages appear to be in a detached translation state: stable, but no longer syncing source changes from NL → EN.

What I would like to achieve is to have Home and Biography fully re-linked as proper WPML translations, with Dutch as the source language, so that source changes are again detected and shown correctly in the WPML Translation Editor and updates are handled normally.

Could you please re-sync / re-link these two pages as full WPML translations, rather than detached/manual ones?

I have not made any further structural changes to avoid interfering with your work.

Thanks again for your help - much appreciated.

Best regards,
Hesther