Background of the issue:
I am trying to update our plugins, specifically WPML from version 4.7.6 to 4.8.4 and String Translations from version 3.3.3 to 3.4.1. The issue can be seen at hidden link.
Symptoms:
The process of updating affected posts for changes in translatable fields is stuck on the "custom_title" custom_field. The first batches ran fine, but this one is now stuck at 50 entries for 20 minutes. and retrys are stuck at 7.
Questions:
Why is the update process stuck on the custom_title field?
How can I resolve the issue of the update process being stuck?
Were you able to successfully update your WPML plugins to their latest versions?
I can see that there are over 4000 items being translated, sometimes when the size is this large it can take a bit longer for all translations to be fully processed.
Please review and let me know if the progress is still stuck or has moved forward yet.
Also, please verify that you have enough credits available or the pay as you go plan is active as if you run out of credits the process will pause.
Our WPML plugins are now up to date. The situation I describe is consecutive to these updates.
The previous processes went fine, I could see the figure increaise for a specific process, until it was done, then the following started, and so on. .
When it came to this one, though, it first had the "play" pictogram, but didn't progress further than 50. I noticed the retry_count was 7 in the database.
Then I ran the fixes sugggested by the bot.
And when I checked again, the retry_count had raised to 10, and the pictogram moved to pause while the count was still 50.
It didn't progress since.
Should I try to run the "optimize translation table" troubleshooting option?
Thanks for your reply. Please backup the entire site and run all troubleshooting options in WPML > Support> Troubleshooting, except the ones that stated "reset". Let us know how it goes.
Hi,
I did run all the optimizations and fix (besides synchronize post taxonomies), and it didn't change anything.
I also trid to run the cron manually, with no more luck.
However, everything seems to run fine on our staging environment.
I don't know what makes it wrong on the local env since the db are were updated on both of these environments 2 days before. So that, besides the paths, they were literally the same dbs.
A difference though, is that the local env runs php 8.4 instead of 8.2 on 8.1 on staging. But I doubt it changes anything?
Since the stuck environment is a dev. environment, for now I'll just bring a new, up to date db in, from the live website, and see how it goes.
By the way, in case I still don't get better results, can you tell me if there's a way to re-start / un-pause a process, as the custom_title one I'm facing right now?
Thanks for your reply. There isn't a stop option for that. I will require temporary access (WP-Admin and FTP) to a test site where the problem has been replicated, if possible. This will enable me to provide better assistance and determine if any configurations need to be modified.
Please note that it is important to have a backup for security purposes and to prevent any potential data loss. You can use the UpdraftPlus plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/) to fulfill your backup requirements.
Your upcoming reply will be treated with confidentiality and will only be visible to you and me.
✙ To resolve the issue, I may need your consent to deactivate and reactivate plugins and the theme, as well as make configuration changes on the site if necessary. This emphasizes the significance of having a backup.
Update: on this specific environment, the exact same behavior happened with an up to date database.
I tested it agains php 8.2 and 8.1 as well. Same issue.
I also tried to apply the database optimizations.
These ran fast, but the process get stuck anyways.
We won't share access to our staging env. Anyway, it worked fine here.
I can't share access to a local env.
Copying it wouldn't make sense since it's obviously environment related.
I added some php settings to my local environment, based on the setup of the stating environments, where the updates went fine. Unfortunately, it didn't help: I'm still stuck at the same state.
Since on our staging environment, and on another local development environmentn, the updates went fine, we thought the issue only occured on my local environment , so decided to go live.
Unfortunately... The updates got stuck on the live environment as well. At the exact same step.
Can you please provide us with clear explanations regarding this process:
- What is it supposed to do? "Updating affected posts for changes in translatable fields" is very generic.
- Is it required to complet these updates before working on the website again?
- Are we supposed to clear the WPML caches, or process other further troubleshooting options, before, during or after (if they finally complete) these custom fields data updates?
- What the "attempts", counted in the database, correspond to (meaning what ends an attemps, and creates another)?
- One thing we noticed is that my local environment has this step "paused" (pause pictogram), while the live is stuck at the exact same stem and is in the "active" state, (play pictogram) for over two hours now. We obviously have no action as a user, so what manages this state?
Such explanations would help us better understand what's going on here.
However, it seems the process got stuck, which may indicate a corrupted database table. Without access to your Website, I won’t be able to troubleshoot or escalate this to our 2nd Tier Support.
For now, please review your custom field settings to ensure everything is configured correctly.
Some custom fields were not up to date.
But they weren't either on the environments where everyhing ran smoothly.
I updated them on my local env, cleared WPML cache + WP cache + WP transients, then all of this again. The only change I notice the custom_title update process moving from pause to run.. . then back to pause again.
I somewhat understand that these updates could be related with automatic translation
I also notices this thread is tagged ATE.
So I need to mention we are NOT using the automatic translation, and NOT using the ATE (we use the CTE to be able to work with XLIFF imports).
Please open an access to duplicator, I'll take some time to give a try again for a duplication of this stucked local environment.
Thanks for your reply. Sorry, what do you mean by "open an access to duplicator"? Do you mean you need the duplicator pro plugin activated on your Website?
Hi,
Yes, but if it's not required, I can try without it.
In the meantime, can you please answer the following questions?
1. Are these updates related/consequent to the WPML version we updated to?
2. We have some content in the process of being translated. Do we need to wipe this before these updates run (which would be very constraining)
3. Do we need to run the Database Tables Optimization before there updates run?
4. Do we need to update sync the custom fields before these updates run?
5. Do we need to clear WPML cache before these updates run?
