I have a translated page on my site that I need to hide because it is out of date. I set it to draft...

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

Problem:
The client needed to hide a translated page that was out of date by setting it to draft. However, the link to the unpublished translation still appeared in the menu and widget language switcher, leading to a 404 error.
Solution:
We explained that for an admin user who is logged in, it is expected to still see language options for drafts. For non-logged-in users, only the "English" language option should be visible. Additionally, the client needs to manually adjust the menu to remove the link from the language switcher, as this is not an issue specific to WPML but a general behavior when unpublishing content.

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Tagged: Exception, Not WPML issue

This topic contains 4 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by jhanten 1 month, 1 week ago.

Assisted by: Andreas W..

Author	Posts
August 6, 2025 at 6:22 pm #17300662
jhanten	Background of the issue: I have a translated page on my site that I need to hide because it is out of date. I set it to draft, but it still shows in the menu and widget language switcher. I am trying to unpublish a translation so it can be revised and published again at a later date. Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link Symptoms: The language switcher still shows the translation link which now goes to a 404 error. I expected the link to the Español version to disappear from the site menu and widget area after I unpublished the translation and cleared the server and object cache. Instead, I can still see the link to the unpublished page in the menu language switcher and the widget language switcher on the page. Questions: Why does the language switcher still show the link to the unpublished translation? How can I remove the link to the unpublished translation from the language switcher?
August 7, 2025 at 10:11 am #17302144
Christopher Amirian WPML Supporter since 07/2020 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: Asia/Yerevan (GMT+04:00)	Hi, Welcome to WPML support. I will answer the question before this ticket is assigned to one of my colleagues. Please go to WPML > languages and select the Skip language option for the language switcher. After that: - Go to "WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks". - Click the "Save" button to flush the permalinks cache. Thanks.
August 7, 2025 at 1:50 pm #17302824
jhanten	That is already enabled hence why I thought it would have worked. Just for fun I also re saved the permalinks but the issue remains.
August 7, 2025 at 3:05 pm #17303172
jhanten	Sorry for the second response, but I really think this issue is because the content was published and now has been unpublished but the language switchers don't seem to understand that?
August 8, 2025 at 6:00 pm #17306147
Andreas W. WPML Supporter since 12/2018 Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) German (Deutsch ) Timezone: America/Lima (GMT-05:00)	Hello, For an admin user who is logged in to the site, it would be expected that you still see language options for drafts. As long as I am not logged in and go to your example, I can only see the "English" language option: hidden link For the menu: You will need to manually adjust the menu, but this is not a WPML issue. You will experience the same issue when testing without WPML. Best regards Andreas
August 8, 2025 at 7:25 pm #17306197
jhanten	Thank you. I cleared all the cache and was logged out in a different browser when I was seeing the links still, but maybe something else needed time because I see the same as you now a few days later, but the first day the link was still present even logged out with browser and server cache cleared so I don't get it. Thanks.