Managing Translations When Migrating from Development to Production or Copying Your Site

Dario

Updated: August 7, 2023

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Moving your site from development to production or creating a copy of your site affects your WPML site key, automatic translations, and features of the Advanced Translation Editor. WPML walks you through setting up your site correctly after a URL change.

WPML automatically detects changes to your site’s URL and initiates a migration wizard that lets you clarify if you want to keep both sites or switch your site’s address to the new one.

You may see this message if you have done one of the following:

Switched to a New URL

Migrated the site to a new domain
Moved a site from a development URL to a production URL

Created a Copy of Your Site

Used a duplicator plugin to create a testing environment
Created a staging environment for your WordPress site
Used a demo site prepared by Toolset

*WPML initiates a migration wizard when it detects a change in your URL*

By following the wizard, you ensure that WPML knows what to do with pending translations, translation memory, existing URLs and permalinks. It also lets you manage your translation credits or pay-as-you-go subscription.

Changing to a New Site URL

If you specify that you are no longer using the original site address, WPML begins moving your translation information to the new URL.

Your site’s translation memory and pending translations will remain as they are.
The Advanced Translation Editor will update your site’s permalinks to the new URL.
You can continue translating as normal on your new site address.

Important: If you moved your site from development to production, you need to update your site key.

Reverting to Your Original Site URL

You may unintentionally move your original website to a new URL. This could happen, for instance, if you clone your site for debugging purposes, and then mistakenly mark the clone as your website’s new location.
In such cases, WPML provides a simple solution. On your original website, you can find a notification giving you the option to undo this change.

*Clicking the link to revert to the original site URL*

Reverting back to your original domain allows you to resume translating there. However, the ability to update translations at the new URL (in this case, the clone) will no longer be available.

Using a Copy of Your Site

If the site you are using is a copy and your original site is still running:

WPML will treat it as a new site, so you need to register it.
Any pending translation jobs will be canceled.

If your original site has translation credits or a pay-as-you-go subscription, you can choose from two options:

Assign translation credits or set up a separate pay-as-you-go subscription for the copy of your site.

WPML creates a copy of your site with the content and existing translation memory from your original site. Whenever you’re ready, you can assign translation credits or set up a pay-as-you-go subscription.

If you decide you want to both use automatic translation and continue sharing translation memory with the original site, you can link the copy of your site with your existing automatic translation account.

Share credits across sites by linking the copy to an existing automatic translation account.

WPML provides a link back to your original site that you need to follow to generate a migration code which you then need to paste into the migration wizard. This allows WPML to make the translation credits available for sharing across sites.