Troubleshooting Guide

This expanded troubleshooting section covers the most commonly reported issues, their typical causes, and step-by-step solutions. Work through the relevant section before contacting support — most issues can be resolved in a few minutes.

Tooltip Help Opens the Homepage Instead of the Article

Forge Suite Deactivate on a Clone Affects Another Site

Standalone License Activates the Wrong Forge Plugins

Free Trial Shows Active but PRO Features Stay Locked

Free Install Looks PRO After Removing the PRO Add-on

All saved languages stay active after a downgrade: Free and PRO both support an unlimited number of active languages, so the runtime switcher, routing, REST writes, and AJAX translation-link actions continue to use the full active language list whether or not a PRO license is current. Losing PRO only disables the PRO features (AI, Visual Editor, Translation Memory, Content Diff, Analytics, import/export), not languages, the Glossary, or WooCommerce translation.

1. Confirm langforge-pro/langforge-pro.php is not active in Plugins.
2. Hard-refresh Lang Forge > String Translation and the License page.
3. If you are testing locally, delete forge_e2e_plan and age forge_license_last_pro_at beyond 24 hours to simulate expiry. Current builds treat an aged timestamp as Free under either the local FORGE_SKIP_LICENSE_REVALIDATION bypass or Freemius WP_FS__DEV_MODE.
4. If the UI still appears PRO, update both langforge and langforge-pro to the current builds so the Free plugin and PRO add-on share the same split-gate logic.

Credits Pricing Fails with CORS on Localhost

Lang Forge Pro Update Does Not Appear in wp-admin

Move License Banner Still Shows After a Successful Move

1. Hard-refresh the WordPress admin page.
2. Check the browser address bar. It should not contain forge_connect_error, forge_connect_code, or forge_connect_move_url after a successful move.
3. A normal post-move URL contains forge_connect_moved=1.
4. Click Connect to Avakode again on the target site to finish activation.
5. If the old banner still appears after a hard refresh, clear the page/CDN cache and retry Connect.

String Translation Adds Extra Backslashes

1. Open Lang Forge > String Translation and select the affected domain.
2. Replace the over-escaped value with the intended text, for example C:UsersTest.
3. Click Save Translations.
4. Refresh the page and save again if needed. The value should remain unchanged.

Polylang Migration Shows the Wrong Language or Unexpected Counts

1. Update Lang Forge to the current version.
2. Run Lang Forge > Tools > Migration > Polylang again.
3. Open Lang Forge > Translation Status and check that language columns match the old Polylang posts.
4. For any intentionally incomplete group, leave the missing language untranslated or create it manually from the source post.

LearnDash Topic Is Missing Its Course or Lesson After Translation

1. Update Lang Forge to the current version.
2. Open the affected translated topic and click Update.
3. If you are translating a whole course, translate or update the parent course and lesson first, then update the topic so Lang Forge can resolve target-language siblings.
4. Reopen the topic in LearnDash. It should now be attached to the translated course and lesson.

LearnDash Course Editor Shows Duplicate or Missing Language Box

1. Update Lang Forge to the current version.
2. Open a LearnDash Course edit screen.
3. Switch between Course page, Dashboard, Builder, Extend Access, and Settings.
4. Confirm the right sidebar contains one Language metabox on each tab.

404 Errors on Translated Pages

• WordPress permalink rewrite rules are stale and do not include Lang Forge’s language routes.
• A server configuration issue prevents URL rewriting from working.
• The translated page URL slug was changed manually and no longer matches.

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress admin
2. Do not change any settings. Simply click Save Changes to force WordPress to regenerate its rewrite rules
3. Visit the translated page again in an incognito browser window
4. If the issue persists, check your web server configuration. Apache servers need mod_rewrite enabled and an .htaccess file in the WordPress root. Nginx servers need a try_files directive in their configuration
5. If you are on shared hosting and cannot access server configuration, contact your hosting provider and ask them to confirm that URL rewriting is enabled for your site
6. As a last resort, switch to the Parameter URL format temporarily (Lang Forge > Settings > URL Settings). If Parameter format works but Directory does not, the issue is definitely a server-side rewrite configuration problem

Wrong Language Displayed on a Page

• The translation post exists but is not properly linked to the original in the translation group.
• A caching plugin or CDN is serving a stale cached version of the page.
• The translation post’s language metadata was accidentally changed.

1. Open the original post in the WordPress editor
2. Check the Language & Translations metabox in the sidebar. Verify that the correct translation is listed for the affected language
3. If the translation is not linked, click Link Existing and search for the translation post to reconnect them
4. Open the translation post itself and verify that its language is set correctly in the Language & Translations metabox
5. Clear all caches: go to your caching plugin’s settings and purge the entire cache. If you use a CDN, purge the CDN cache as well
6. Test in an incognito browser window to eliminate browser-side caching

Translated Page Content Is Correct but SEO Title or Canonical Uses the Source Page

1. Flush permalinks once: Settings > Permalinks, click Save Changes
2. Clear object/page/CDN caches
3. Confirm the translated post has the expected _lf_language value and is linked to the source post in the Language & Translations metabox
4. If another plugin overrides WP_Query late in the request, temporarily deactivate it to isolate the conflict

Translation Not Appearing for Visitors

• The translation post is still in Draft or Pending status.
• The language was removed from the Active Languages list.
• The translation is not linked to the original post.

1. Open the translation post and check its publication status in the Publish panel. Change it to Published if it is set to Draft or Pending
2. Go to Lang Forge > Languages and confirm the target language is in the Active Languages list. If it is missing, add it back
3. Open the original post and check the Language & Translations metabox. Verify the translation appears as a linked item. If it does not, use Link Existing to reconnect
4. Clear all caches (caching plugin, CDN, browser)
5. Visit the page in an incognito window and check whether the language switcher now includes the expected language

AI Quality Check Issues

• A score of 90+ with an empty issue list means the AI found no concrete problems worth flagging. Your translation is probably publish-ready.
• When you click “Apply fix” on an issue, the corresponding segment in the right panel updates instantly and the Save indicator shows unsaved changes. Review the new text and click Save.
• If the flagged segment lives in a field that is not shown in the Visual Editor (for example, the post excerpt when you are editing the main content), the fix still applies to the post on the server and a “Reload editor” link appears. Click it to refresh the editor and see the updated field.
• If Check Quality is missing from a post/page translation metabox, the site is Free, the Pro add-on is not active, the Translation QA feature is locked, or the AI credential/trial token is not connected. This is intentional; the button should not appear and then fail with an AI-not-configured error.

1. Check your browser console for JavaScript errors — an ad-blocker or security extension may be interfering with the AJAX request
2. Make sure your AI credit balance is not zero — each fix consumes credits and an empty balance silently skips the operation
3. Reload the Visual Editor and run QA Check again. If the same issue reappears with the same suggestion, try editing the segment manually instead

AI Translation Failures

• The server cannot make outgoing HTTPS requests to the Forge API.
• The PRO license has expired or is not activated.
• AI credits are exhausted.
• A PHP timeout occurs during translation of very long content.

1. Go to Lang Forge > License and verify your license status is Active and your credit balance is above zero
2. If the license shows as Inactive, click Connect to Avakode (or Reconnect) to re-sync — there is no key-entry field
3. If credits are at zero, purchase an add-on credit pack — credits never reset automatically (there is no monthly allowance), so buying a pack is the only way to top up
4. Test outgoing connections: go to Lang Forge > Tools > System Check. This page runs a connectivity test to the Forge API and reports the result. If it fails, contact your hosting provider and ask them to allow outgoing HTTPS connections to api.forgesuite.io
5. For very long posts (5,000+ words), the AI translation may time out on hosts with a low PHP execution time limit. Ask your hosting provider to increase the max_execution_time PHP setting to at least 120 seconds, or translate the post section by section using the Visual Editor’s per-segment AI Translate button

Domain URL mode doesn’t resolve a language

1. Go to Lang Forge → Settings → URL Settings.
2. Pick the Domain option — a Per-language Domains block appears with one input per active language.
3. Fill in the host (no https://, no trailing slash) for each language, for example:

– en → example.en

1. Save settings. In the database lf_domain_map now contains the mapping.
2. Make sure those domains actually point at the same WordPress install (A-records / CNAMEs in DNS). Lang Forge uses the HTTP_HOST of the request to pick the language, so the wrong DNS will break language detection silently.

One-Click Site Duplication progress bar stuck at “29 / 10”

Fixed in LF-100. On newer builds the denominator updates from each forge_queue_status poll response. If the issue still reproduces, hard-reload the Settings page (Shift-F5) to make sure you’re running the latest JS.

String Translation “AI Translate All” only translated some rows

Fixed in LF-104. The new behaviour runs the whole job server-side, writes directly to the database, and reloads the page on completion — no manual Save, no per-page cap. If you see the old behaviour, hard-reload to pick up the new JS.

String Translation “AI Translate All” button is visible but disabled

• No specific Domain is selected in the filter yet.
• The active install does not have the Lang Forge PRO add-on with an active AI-capable license or trial.

Pick a Domain first. If the Domain is already selected, install/activate the PRO add-on and complete the Lang Forge license / Connect flow. Once the AI path is available, reload the page and the button becomes clickable. Enabling the button manually in DevTools will not bypass the server-side license check.

Language Switcher Not Showing or Showing Incorrectly

• The switcher widget or shortcode was not added to the theme.
• No published translations exist for the current page.
• A theme or plugin conflict is overriding the switcher output.

1. Verify the switcher is placed: check Appearance > Widgets for the Lang Forge Language Switcher widget, or search your page content for the
   • English ▾
     • English
   shortcode
2. If using the menu item method, go to Appearance > Menus and confirm the Lang Forge Language Switcher item is present in your menu
3. Remember that the switcher only shows languages that have a published translation for the current page. Create and publish a translation to see the language option appear
4. If the switcher appears in the admin bar but not on the frontend, the issue is likely with widget placement. Try adding the shortcode directly to a page’s content to test whether the switcher renders
5. Check for JavaScript errors in your browser’s developer console (press F12). Some theme or plugin conflicts can cause JavaScript errors that prevent the switcher dropdown from functioning

Menu Translation Problems

• A separate menu was not created and assigned to the language-specific menu location.
• Menu items in the translated menu were linked to the original-language pages instead of the translated pages.

1. Go to Appearance > Menus and check the dropdown at the top for the list of existing menus. You should have a separate menu for each language (for example, “Main Menu,” “Main Menu – Spanish,” “Main Menu – French”)
2. If a translated menu does not exist, create one: click Create a new menu, name it clearly (e.g., “Main Menu – Spanish”), and add the translated pages to it
3. Assign the new menu to the correct language-specific menu location. Scroll to Menu Settings at the bottom and check the box for the appropriate location (e.g., “Primary Menu – Spanish”)
4. Verify that each menu item points to the translated page, not the original. Edit the menu item and check the URL or linked page
5. Save the menu and test on the frontend by switching to the target language

WooCommerce Translation Issues

• WooCommerce Products are not enabled as a translatable content type.
• WooCommerce string translations are missing.
• The WooCommerce core pages (Shop, Cart, Checkout) do not have linked translations.
• WooCommerce was activated after Lang Forge and the old request did not register WooCommerce-specific translation hooks yet.

1. Go to Lang Forge > Settings and scroll to Translatable Content. Make sure “Products” is checked. Save if you made changes
2. Check that translations exist for the WooCommerce core pages: go to Pages > All Pages and look for the Shop, Cart, Checkout, and My Account pages. Each should have linked translations
3. Translate WooCommerce strings: go to Lang Forge > String Translation, filter by Source “WooCommerce,” and translate all key strings (or use AI Translate All on PRO)
4. For product categories and attributes, go to Products > Categories and Products > Attributes and create translations for each term
5. If SKU, price, or product type did not copy to a new product translation, reload wp-admin once after activating WooCommerce and confirm Products is checked in Translatable Content. Current versions retry WooCommerce hook registration when WooCommerce becomes available and force-include the product post type, so newly created translations copy product meta and product type terms.
6. Clear all caches and test the store in an incognito window
7. If the store uses paid WooCommerce extensions (Subscriptions, Bookings, custom checkout fields, payment-provider emails, shipping calculators), verify those flows manually; they are extension-specific compatibility scope.

WooCommerce Products List — Language Column Breaks Layout

1. Hard-refresh the products page (Cmd+Shift+R or Ctrl+F5) to bypass cached CSS
2. Confirm you are on the latest Lang Forge — the compact layout shipped in 2026-04
3. If you run a custom admin theme that forces td { white-space: normal; } globally, the compact pills may still wrap. Add .post-type-product .lf-lang-cell { white-space: nowrap; } to your admin stylesheet

Translated Product URL Redirects to the Default Language

1. Flush permalinks once: Settings > Permalinks, click Save Changes (no changes required)
2. Clear every cache layer: object cache, page cache, CDN, browser
3. Confirm both products share the same translation_group and that each has the correct _lf_language meta — a missing _lf_language on one side leaves the pair half-linked
4. Check that no other plugin is registering its own redirect_canonical filter with higher priority — WPML compatibility mode is the most common culprit

WooCommerce /product/slug/ URLs Redirect to the Homepage

1. Flush permalinks once: Settings > Permalinks, click Save Changes
2. Confirm the product post type is public and has rewrite rules enabled
3. Check that the product itself is published and has the expected _lf_language meta

LearnDash Translations Lose Parent Course or Lesson Links

• Back-fill on the source side: if the original post is missing _lf_language meta (LearnDash’s AJAX builder sometimes creates posts through save paths that skip the usual hook), Lang Forge reads the language from its own translation table and restores the meta
• Sibling back-fill: if you translated a Lesson before its parent Course, the Lesson’s course_id temporarily points to the RU course. When you later translate the Course, Lang Forge scans target-language entities that still reference the source course and re-points them to the new translation

WPML Migration Did Not Carry the “Hide Default Language” Setting

• language_negotiation_type → mapped to lf_url_format (1=directory, 2=subdomain, 3=parameter)
• urls.directory_for_default_language → inverted into lf_hide_default_language (WPML’s “use directory for default = off” maps to Lang Forge’s “hide default = on”). Legacy WPML versions using urls.show_on_root are also supported

Elementor and Divi Content Not Translating

• The page builder’s internal data structure was not fully copied during translation creation.
• A caching layer within the page builder is serving stale content.
• For Elementor pages edited through Lang Forge’s Visual Editor, Lang Forge now clears Elementor’s per-post rendered element cache whenever widget text is saved, so the frontend should show the updated translated widgets immediately.

1. Open the translation post in the page builder (Elementor or Divi)
2. Verify that the page structure (sections, rows, columns) matches the original. If the layout is missing, delete the translation draft and create a new one using the Create Translation button in the Language & Translations metabox — this ensures the page builder data is properly copied
3. Edit the text in each widget or module. Make sure you edit within the page builder interface, not in the WordPress text editor
4. Save and publish from within the page builder
5. Clear all site-level caches. Elementor’s per-post rendered element cache is cleared automatically when Lang Forge updates translated widget text; if styling still looks stale, use Elementor’s Regenerate CSS option under Elementor > Tools. Divi has a Clear Static CSS File Generation option under Divi > Theme Options > Builder > Advanced
6. Test on the frontend in an incognito browser window

SEO Hreflang Tag Issues

• Some translations are in Draft status and are excluded from hreflang output.
• Translation links between posts are broken or incomplete.
• Another SEO plugin is outputting conflicting hreflang tags.

1. View the page source of the affected page (right-click, View Page Source) and search for “hreflang” to see what tags Lang Forge is generating
2. Verify that all translations of the page are Published — draft translations are intentionally excluded from hreflang
3. Check that every translation has a return link. Open each translation and verify it is linked back to the original and to all sibling translations in the Language & Translations metabox
4. If you use Yoast SEO or another SEO plugin that also generates hreflang, check whether duplicate tags appear. Lang Forge integrates with Yoast to prevent duplicates, but less common SEO plugins might produce conflicts. Disable the hreflang feature in the other plugin if it conflicts
5. Submit the hreflang sitemap (/sitemap-hreflang.xml) to Google Search Console and wait for the next crawl cycle to see updated validation results

Performance Problems on Multilingual Sites

• Object caching is not enabled, causing repeated database queries.
• An extremely large number of translations (tens of thousands of posts) without database optimization.
• A conflict with another plugin that runs heavy queries on every page load.

1. Install an object cache plugin (Redis Object Cache or Memcached) if your hosting supports it. Object caching eliminates repeated database queries for language detection and translation mapping
2. Go to Lang Forge > Tools > System Check and review the performance section. It reports the number of translation pairs, database table sizes, and query counts per request
3. If you have more than 10,000 translated posts, run the database optimization tool at Lang Forge > Tools > Optimize Database. This rebuilds indexes and removes orphaned translation metadata
4. Use the Query Monitor plugin to identify which specific queries are slow. Look for queries from Lang Forge and report them to support if optimization does not resolve the issue
5. Make sure you are running a caching plugin (WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, or similar) to serve cached HTML to visitors and reduce server-side processing

Import and Export Errors

• The import file is malformed or was edited with a text editor that changed the encoding.
• The original content has changed since the export, so content fingerprints no longer match.
• The file was exported from a different site where post content differs.

1. Verify the file encoding: XLIFF and CSV files must be saved as UTF-8. If you edited the file in Excel, re-save it as “CSV UTF-8” from the Save As dialog
2. For XLIFF files, validate the XML structure using an online XML validator before importing. Common issues include unclosed tags and invalid characters
3. If translations are not matching, open the import preview and check the “Unmatched” tab. It shows why each unmatched entry failed — usually because the original content was modified after export. Re-export the current content, translate it, and re-import
4. For large files (1,000+ entries), increase the PHP upload_max_filesize and post_max_size settings. Ask your hosting provider for help if you cannot access PHP settings
5. Try importing in smaller batches by splitting the file into groups of 100 to 200 entries

Conflicts with Other Plugins

• The other plugin uses hardcoded URLs that do not account for language prefixes.
• The other plugin registers its own URL rewrite rules that conflict with Lang Forge’s language routing.
• JavaScript from the other plugin does not handle the language parameter in AJAX requests.

1. Identify the conflicting plugin by deactivating plugins one at a time and testing after each deactivation
2. Once identified, check whether the conflicting plugin has a “multilingual” or “WPML compatible” setting — enable it, as Lang Forge’s WPML compatibility layer often resolves the issue
3. Clear all caches after changing plugin settings
4. If the conflict involves URL routing, try switching to the Parameter URL format temporarily. If the issue resolves, the conflict is specifically with URL rewriting
5. Report the conflict to Lang Forge support with the names and versions of both plugins. We maintain a compatibility database and may already have a known fix or workaround

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