Certain variable products links broken

Ok, so I tested this by turning off all of the plugins (except Woocommerce) and switching the theme to Twenty-Fifteen and the problem persists of the strange product redirect that is causing this problem.

However, I did identify that it is “WPML String Translation” that is causing the conflict with the permalinks update. As soon this is disabled I can set the products to the default permalinks structure and the links automatically update in the backend and on the front end via the theme.

However, this represents another major problem since I run a multilingual site. Not only does “Woocommerce Multilingual” require WPML String Translation to work, that plugin is used to translate strings in many sidebars and other plugins. A lot of my multilingual site content disappears.

If I reactivate “WPML String Translation” the problem returns and the strings are back to how they were with the custom permalinks setup, the original problem remaining.

Does this give any clues?

I’m not overly familiar with the WPML setup sorry. You may want to post on the WPML forums to see if this is a known issue. They also manage the woocommerce integration plugin.

Ok thanks for all your help. I’ll reach out on their forums.

Great, update us here if you find the solution in case anyone else comes across it.