product gallery management in my WooCommerce translations using WPML.

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

Problem:
You are managing product gallery translations in your WooCommerce store using WPML. In the original language (FR), products have a complete gallery. However, in the back-end product editor of the translated product, the product gallery field is empty and not dynamic, despite having enabled 'Duplicate featured image from original' and 'Duplicate image galleries from original'.
Solution:
If you're experiencing this issue, we recommend you try the following steps:
1. Navigate to WPML → Settings → Custom Fields Translation.
2. Activate the option "Show 'Multilingual Content Setup' meta box on post edit screen." and save your changes.
3. Edit the product in the original language, scroll to the bottom, and click on "Show system fields".
4. Set

_product_image_gallery

to Copy and save your changes.
5. Make a minor change to the original product, update it, and then complete the translation.

This solution might be irrelevant if it's outdated or not applicable to your case. 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 the issue persists, please open a new support ticket at WPML support forum.

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Tagged: Exception, WCML

This topic contains 5 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by Andrey 3 weeks, 4 days ago.

Assisted by: Andrey.

Author	Posts
August 26, 2025 at 9:46 am #17347398
alineY	Background of the issue: I am managing product gallery translations in my WooCommerce store using WPML. In the original language (FR), products have a complete gallery. The gallery displays correctly on the front end for translations, but in the back-end product editor of the translated product, the product gallery field is empty and not dynamic. I have enabled 'Duplicate featured image from original' and 'Duplicate image galleries from original'. All images are the same across languages, and I am not using Media Translation. Symptoms: In the translated product back-end editor, the product gallery field is empty. This causes some gallery-related behaviors, like the hover effect on the catalog image, to not work properly. Questions: Why is the product gallery field empty in the back-end editor for translated products? How can I ensure the product gallery is dynamic in translations?
August 26, 2025 at 2:49 pm #17348856
Lauren WPML Supporter since 10/2015 Languages: English (English ) Timezone: America/New_York (GMT-04:00)	Thank you for contacting WPML support. While you are waiting for one of my colleagues to take this ticket and work on it, let me provide you with first debugging steps or if I can perhaps help with the issue quickly. Are you using any 3rd party plugin to display the gallery, or are you using the standard WooCommerce gallery? If it's a another plugin, it's possible they use custom fields for the images, and those fields can be set to copy in WPML -> Settings -> Custom fields (click show system fields). If it is standard WooCommerce, make sure that you have synced the images to both languages. I see your settings from WPML -> Settings -> Media Translation look correct. Just be sure to click "Start" to run the sync if you have't already. Also, if you updated those settings or just checked the Duplicate Uploaded Media and it wasn't checked before, please try updating the original product and then update the translation and then see if the gallery has been copied.
August 26, 2025 at 3:17 pm #17348935
alineY	i use standard WooCommerce gallery. The hover dont switch pictures but product page show the whole gallery. Also the gallery is invisible in the translated product edit page
August 26, 2025 at 7:43 pm #17349513
Andrey WPML Supporter since 06/2013 Languages: English (English ) Russian (Русский ) Timezone: Europe/Kyiv (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for your feedback. Can you try the following steps? 1. Go to WPML → Settings → Custom Fields Translation 2. Activate the option "Show 'Multilingual Content Setup' meta box on post edit screen. " and Save. 3. Edit the product in the original language, navigate to the bottom, and click on "Show system fields". 4. Set _product_image_gallery to Copy and Save. 5. Make a tiny change to the original product, update it, and complete the translation. I have attached the screenshots for you to review.
August 27, 2025 at 3:30 pm #17352511
alineY	it works great thank you! how do i turn this on for all future translations?
August 28, 2025 at 8:08 am #17353799
Andrey WPML Supporter since 06/2013 Languages: English (English ) Russian (Русский ) Timezone: Europe/Kyiv (GMT+03:00)	Great! I'm glad to hear that it works! Once you set the custom field _product_image_gallery to 'Copy', it will be applied to all products. So, you should be good for future products and translations.