Can't update any plugins

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

Problem:
You are working on a staging development site and have removed the registration/site key of the live site from your account to manage multiple sites. You are facing issues updating WPML plugins and receiving errors such as 'Update failed', 'WPML detected a change in your site’s URL', and 'WPML plugin cannot connect to wpml.org'.
Solution:
We recommend re-registering your staging website to resolve these issues:
1. Visit https://wpml.org/account/sites and remove the website from the list.
2. Add it again and copy the newly generated key.
3. In your website's admin panel, go to Plugins > Add New > Commercial Tab and click on "Unregister WPML from this site".
4. Register the website again using the key you copied in step #2.
This process will not impact your existing translations and should resolve the update issues.

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it becomes outdated, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix, and confirming that you have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 issues persist, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum for further assistance.

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Tagged: Exception

This topic contains 2 replies, has 0 voices.

Last updated by Lucas Vidal de Andrade 2 weeks, 6 days ago.

Assisted by: Lucas Vidal de Andrade.

Author	Posts
March 20, 2026 at 12:51 am #17912600
katarinaP	Hi, I am working on a staging (subdomain) development site. I removed the registration / site key of the live site from my account so that I can have 3 sites one of which is the development site. I have WP 6.9.1 and 4 plugins: WPML Media Translation 3.0.0, WPML Multilingual CMS 4.8.6, WPML SEO 2.2.4 and WPML String Translation 3.4.1. I want to update to the latest versions so to translate all the content on my site and have everything up to date. But every time I try to update it says 'Update failed'. I don't understand why - and nothing I do affects it. I don't want to delete all the plugins and instal them manually to start fresh - I first want to see if this can be fixed simply. Do you maybe know why this is? In addition, if I go to WPML>Translations Dashboard I get "WPML detected a change in your site’s URL" and I am not sure what to do with this. I cannot access any of my translations from this dashboard. Plus, on the Support page I also get "WPML plugin cannot connect to wpml.org" while if I check the Error Connection everything seems to be working fine. No idea where all these bugs are coming from. I appreciate your help and thanks in advance!
March 20, 2026 at 9:48 am #17913159
Lucas Vidal de Andrade WPML Supporter since 11/2023 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)	Hello there, First and foremost, your account allows you to have 3 productions websites, and 9 development websites, so it's not necessary to delete a production website to add a development one. Now, about the staging website specifically, it's best that you re-register it from 0: 1. Go to wpml.org/account/sites and remove the website from the list; 2. Add it again and copy the newly generated key; 3. In your website's admin panel, go to Plugins > Add New > Commercial Tab and click on "Unregister WPML from this site"; 4. Register the website again, with the key you copied in step #2; This does not have any impact on existing translations. You can proceed safely. After that, you should have no issues updating the plugins.
March 20, 2026 at 9:49 am #17913164
Lucas Vidal de Andrade WPML Supporter since 11/2023 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Portuguese (Brazil) (Português ) Timezone: Europe/Vienna (GMT+02:00)	P.S: if the website is not registered on wpml.org/account/sites, you can ignore step 01.