Links gone in translations

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

Problem:
The client was experiencing issues with links not appearing correctly in the English translation of their German website. The links either did not copy over or were empty, causing them to just reload the page instead of redirecting.
Solution:
We recommended the following steps to resolve the issue:
1. Edit the content in the original language.
2. Make a small change in the content, especially in the links.
3. Save the changes and update the translation.
4. Double-check if the issue disappeared.
Additionally, we advised the client to:
- Click on the links and add a space at the end of each link mentioned.
- Go to WPML -> Settings -> Translate Link Targets -> Click on 'Scan now and adjust links', wait for the process to finish, and double-check the results.

If this solution does not resolve your issue, or if it seems outdated or irrelevant to your case, we highly recommend checking related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verifying the version of the permanent fix,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 problems persist, please open a new support ticket.

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Tagged: ATE, Exception

This topic contains 3 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by Carlos Rojas 3 days ago.

Assisted by: Carlos Rojas.

Author	Posts
November 21, 2024 at 2:26 pm #16429584
marcialB	Background of the issue: I am trying to translate a site from German (hidden link) to English (hidden link). Symptoms: Most of the links are gone in the translation process. I expected to see links copied to the translation, but instead, I got elements without a link. Questions: Why are the links not appearing in the translated page? How can I ensure that links are copied correctly during translation?
November 21, 2024 at 2:27 pm #16429599
marcialB	The password for the pages is "M&A" (without quotes).
November 25, 2024 at 1:26 pm #16439944
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Hello, Thank you for contacting us I have visited both sites and I can see the links correctly. If you still see the problem when translating the content I'd recommend following these steps: - Edit the content in the original language - Make a small change in the content, especially in the links - Save the changes and update the translation - Double-check if the issue disappeared Regards, Carlos
November 25, 2024 at 3:53 pm #16441077
marcialB	Hi Carlos It's only working for a handful of links. On hidden link, link 2, 3 and 7 aren't working, they appear to have a link but they are empty and just reload the page. I did that with the small changes several times and just repeated it. But with the same result as before. I also checked for any issues in the code, like leaking html tags and such but I don't see any problems there either. All the links start with https:// and should thus be easily identifieable by WPML. Thanks for your further investigation.
November 25, 2024 at 4:31 pm #16441284
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Thank you for your message. I will need to take a look at the site configuration. I have set your next message private so you can securely share the access credentials to the site. Please don't forget to create a full backup of the site before sharing the credentials.
November 26, 2024 at 9:44 am #16443694
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Thank you for sharing the credentials. Before we continue, I kindly ask you to update all outdated functionalities that appear in this link: hidden link
November 26, 2024 at 3:03 pm #16445662
marcialB	Hi Carlos Will do that later. In the meantime I found a difference between pages where it works and that where it doesn't work. Find attached two screenshot: the one where it's working the elements are correctly identified as text elements; in the one where it's not working the elements are marked as wpml_string_wrapper: content. However, both sites I compared are identically regarding layout: hidden link (working) vs. hidden link (not working). Thanks for looking into it.
November 26, 2024 at 3:07 pm #16445669
marcialB	here the screenshots
November 26, 2024 at 10:13 pm #16447072
marcialB	I updated all plugins and I changed the structure of the page by taking the titles out of the text elements and placing them standalone in their element. However, none of this solved the problem.
November 27, 2024 at 9:25 am #16448273
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Thank you for your messages. After following the steps I described in this message https://wpml.org/forums/topic/links-gone-in-translations/#post-16439944 the issue seems to be solved on both pages. Could you double-check if there are still incorrect links on one of those translated pages, and if so, then let me know which one?
November 27, 2024 at 9:49 am #16448406
marcialB	Hi Carlos It's better now, but link 7 ("Luoma ..."), 12 ("Burgelman ..."), 13 ("Ocasio ..."), 14, 15, and 16 are still emtpy. Thanks for having a look again.
November 27, 2024 at 10:00 am #16448413
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Please follow these steps: - Edit the content in the original language - Click on the links and add a space at the end of each link mentioned - Save the changes - Update the translation - Double-check if the issue disappeared I also recommend going to WPML -> Settings -> Translate Link Targets -> Click on 'Scan now and adjust links' -> Wait for the process to finish and double-check the results.
November 28, 2024 at 10:56 am #16454440
marcialB	Hi Carlos, editing the links themselves worked. Thanks for your help.
November 28, 2024 at 10:59 am #16454447
Carlos Rojas Supporter Languages: English (English ) Spanish (Español ) Timezone: Europe/Madrid (GMT+01:00)	Hi! I'm happy to hear that the issue is solved:) Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need our help in the future with WPML. Have an excellent day!