Issue with translation of duplicated post in WPML

Hi @bmsdan!

We would like some more information.

1. Can you elaborate a bit more on where this: ” ‘This document is a duplicate of [Post Name]’ the [Post Name] will link back to the original document, not the new draft.’ ” is located?

Are you able to take a screenshot of the issue? You can use a tool like: https://imgbb.com/ to share the image.

2. Can you also let us know what link you are expecting to appear?

3. Are all your non-Yoast plugins and themes also updated?

4. Is your Duplicate Post on v4.1.1?

5. If you go to Tools-Duplicate Post do you have a title prefix or is it blank?

We ask as we are using WPML 4.4.6 and Duplicate Post v4.1.1 and we were able to make a translation. See image: https://ibb.co/XSXFKSp.

This secondary language URL has the following permalink. See image:https://ibb.co/frd3DfR

We then cloned it. See image: https://ibb.co/FHQSBSz.

The cloned secondary language URL is different than the original. See image: https://ibb.co/9s64vrg.

This was because in Tools-Duplicate Post we included a title prefix. See image: https://ibb.co/26KDXxZ.

Thanks for looking into this. I suspect the word ‘link’ in my original post confused things, sorry. Rather than the URL, I was actually referring to the connection between the duplicated translated post and its original.

To begin with, here are the plugins installed on this clean version of WordPress 5.7:

https://ibb.co/Hh92NsX

I begin with a single page – ‘Original Page’ – which is in both English and Portuguese: https://ibb.co/QbjWhjH

I then ‘Clone’ that page to create a new draft and I rename the English version to ‘Duplicated page’: https://ibb.co/z4pcBJ3

I then go to edit the Portuguese version of that ‘Duplicated Page’: https://ibb.co/4KzyfGs

However, this page believes it is a translation of the ‘Original Page’ and not the ‘Duplicated Page’: https://ibb.co/kH6FfGM

Here’s a larger screenshot of that PT duplicate so you can see it in context:

https://ibb.co/YjbPCvY

I would have expected the Portuguese version of ‘Duplicated Page’ to be a translation of the English ‘Duplicated Page’, not the ‘Original Page’ from which it was cloned.

This would obviously cause issues as any changes to the original English version of ‘Original Page’ would apply to any Portuguese duplicates (e.g. the PT version of ‘Duplicated Page’ would pull content from the English ‘Original Page’).

Hope that helps!

Hi @bmsdan,

When you duplicate a post using WPML, we don’t expect there to already be a post in other languages associated with it.

In your example, you should only see the option with a plus sign to add a translation, not to edit a translation. We expect you to have to create the post in Portuguese manually in order to have a Portuguese translation.

If that isn’t the behavior that you’re seeing, can you send us a screenshot of your plugin settings under Settings > Duplicate Post? Under “Post/page elements to copy” which options are checked?

Thank you. That’s definitely not the case here. In every test I’ve tried (and this originally happened on a separate client site before I took it to a local environment to replicate), when duplicating a post the translation post is also duplicated. The scenario you described, where you have to manually create the translation after duplicating the post would be preferable.

Here are those settings you requested. These haven’t been amended manually at all, they’re just what was set when I installed the plugin for the purposes of this test: https://ibb.co/hMSkJjk

@bmsdan

We are still unable to reproduce it. No matter how we set-up the language in its own directory or as a parameter the outcome is the same.

1. We created a post in the main language.

2. We then translated it (in this example Hebrew). See image: https://ibb.co/YRRgWss

3. We then duplicated the main language (English). See image: https://ibb.co/C9qCk6f

4. This duplicated the secondary language. See image: https://ibb.co/N2BRXrG

5. We then went to edit the Hebrew language by clicking on the edit icon and we are not seeing it. See image: https://ibb.co/HqxvLH4.

It does not happen with the classic editor.

We would like some more information.

A. We are using WPML v4.4.10 is that your version?

B.We are using Yoast SEO v16.0.2. Is that yours as well?

C. Classic Editor is v1.6

D. This is our WPML settings page. See image: https://ibb.co/Z1yfDWx AND https://ibb.co/MnSRgM5. Does that match? Can you show us your settings?

We’d like to make sure we are faithfully trying to reproduce the issue one last time before we ask for a conflict check.

Thanks for the update. Just to be absolutely sure, I have wiped the database of my local instance and installed WordPress again. The plugins are as follows, all up to date on WordPress 5.7:

https://ibb.co/PTLH3Gn

I went through the WPML setup activating just one additional language (PT-PT) and replicated the steps as before with the same outcome.

My WPML settings look identical to yours:

https://ibb.co/v1W1TDj
https://ibb.co/WH4M4Vp

One thing that I notice is different between your tests and mine is that your ‘Duplicate Hebrew Translation WPML’ doesn’t seem to be set as a ‘duplicate’ of the original post. It seems to be set to translate independently. Compare the two screenshots below:

From my test: https://ibb.co/4Y387v8 – the PT duplicate says ‘This document is a duplicate of Original Page’

From your test: https://ibb.co/HqxvLH4 – which says only ‘This document is a translation of Duplicate English WPML Test’

If the translation is not to set to be a ‘duplicate’ of the original page then the issue will not occur as it seems to specifically be connected to the ‘This document is a duplicate of x’ connection.

Following your steps, on the other hand, I see the same thing you do – the ‘This is a translation of x’ message points to the right post.

So it seems the issue is specifically limited to when a translation is a ‘duplicate’ of a post and not set to be translated independently. As I mentioned in the initial post, I suspect this is because the cloning process copies the ‘duplicate of’ value from the original translation post to the new translation post.

Hi @bmsdan!

Ahhhh ok!! Thank you for your patience. We now understand. You duplicated a WPML post into another language and then went to clone it. Ok!

Yes, we can reproduce this error.

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for the trouble you are experiencing with our plugin. An issue report is currently open with our development team for this issue.

In the meantime, we suggest signing up for our newsletter as that is where we will announce product changes and updates. You may sign-up for it here https://yoast.com/ by scrolling towards the bottom to complete the sign-up field.

Hey there,

I was just wondering if there was any news on when a fix for this issue may be offered? I notice the Duplicate Post plugin hasn’t been updated for 4+ months but is there any indication that a fix may be included in the next release?

Thanks in advance.