WPML 4.5.13 – Updates for WordPress 6.1

WordPress 6.1 was released on November 1st and contains critical, breaking issues with WPML. We recently released WPML 4.5.13 and String Translation 3.2.3 to fix these.

How to Update WPML

WPML 4.5.13 and String Translation 3.2.3 are now available to all WPML clients. You can get these updates from your Downloads page, or by visiting the Plugins page.

What to Do If WordPress 6.1 Breaks Your Site

If you update to WordPress 6.1 before updating WPML, you will see a fatal error on your site. If you have already tried to update WPML using the steps above and are unable to, please try the following fix:

1. Disable String Translation to make your site’s front-end accessible for others.
2. Update WPML core to 4.5.13 and String Translation to 3.2.3.
3. Re-enable String Translation.

If you are not able to access your site’s admin or none of the previous steps seem to work, please try any of these options:

• Manually update WPML using FTP (if you cannot log in to your site).
• Roll back to a previous version of WordPress, then update WPML.
• Restore your site from a backup, then update WPML before updating WordPress.
• Use FTP to change the String Translation plugin folder name, which will deactivate it. You can then delete it from the plugins page and reinstall it with the latest version.

How to Disable Future Automatic WordPress Feature Updates

You can disable future automatic WordPress updates except for maintenance and security updates by going to Dashboard → Updates and clicking the link, Switch to automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only. 

It’s important to note that some hosting providers may automatically update WordPress versions. In that case, you will need to contact them to stop automatic updates.

Why This Happened

This WordPress release has been a moving target with changes introduced between each release candidate, and bugs that weren’t fixed. What’s more, the release date was a holiday for many of our European clients and coworkers.

Normally, we do not release an update until it has been tested thoroughly with the latest WordPress release. However, due to the fact that there was no final version of WordPress 6.1 available until the last minute, we wanted to provide you with an update for the critical issues we were aware of as soon as possible.

Known Issues in WordPress 6.1

These WPML releases address several known issues from WordPress 6.1, including:

WPML Core 4.5.12 & 4.5.13:

• Fixed a notice related to WP_object_cache
• Added support for translating the new List-item Gutenberg block
• Fixed an issue with registering strings coming from the Elementor Flexbox container
• Fixed an issue with the Block widget text being unexpectedly wrapped with a paragraph tag
• Fixed the issue where Block widgets translations were not applied any more
• Fixed an issue with the menu language switcher where the wpml-ls-first-item class was applied to the current language instead of the first listed language. This issue was introduced in WordPress 6.1 and WPML 4.5.12.
• Fixed an issue with the hierarchical language menus to make sure it is not possible to not display the current language in such menus.

String Translation 3.2.3:

• Fixed a fatal error that occurs when running WPML with WordPress version 6.1.

Please note: WordPress 6.1 may introduce issues with other plugins and themes as well. Be sure to keep all your themes and plugins up to date to prevent issues.

Questions or Comments?

Let us know in the comments section below, and we’ll reply.