{"id":63,"date":"2026-09-16T10:29:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/uncategorized\/outdated-translations\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T10:29:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:29:03","slug":"outdated-translations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/latw-for-wpml\/outdated-translations\/","title":{"rendered":"Updating Outdated Translations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Available in LATW AI Translator for WPML PRO<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

What it does<\/h2>\n

When you change a post that is already translated, WPML marks its translations as outdated<\/strong>.
\nYou then decide how to bring them up to date. The plugin offers three ways:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Translate only changed strings (recommended)<\/strong> \u2014 the default. Only the parts of the post you
    \nactually changed are sent to the AI. Everything else keeps the translation it already has.<\/li>\n
  • Translate only changed strings, with the whole page as context<\/strong> \u2014 the same strings are
    \ntranslated and written, but the AI is also shown the rest of the page and the translation
    \nalready published for it. Best quality, and it costs more on every update.<\/li>\n
  • Re-translate the whole post from scratch<\/strong> \u2014 the post is translated again from the first
    \nword to the last, and the previous translation is replaced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The setting lives in AI Translator \u2192 Settings \u2192 Translation \u2192 Outdated Translations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    Translating only what changed is usually much cheaper: fixing a typo in one paragraph of a long
    \narticle costs one paragraph, not the whole article. It is also faster, and it leaves the rest of
    \nthe translation exactly as it is \u2014 including any wording you corrected by hand.<\/p>\n

    Translating with the whole page as context<\/h2>\n

    This mode requires version 2.3.0 or later.<\/em><\/p>\n

    The two “only changed strings” modes write exactly the same thing: the changed strings, nothing
    \nelse. They differ in what the AI is allowed to see while translating them.<\/p>\n

    In the default mode the AI receives the changed strings alone. A new paragraph added to a long
    \narticle arrives with no idea what the article is about, how its terms were translated last year,
    \nor whether the page addresses the reader formally or informally. That is what makes an updated
    \npage read as if it were written by two different people: the new paragraph is correct on its own
    \nand does not match the page around it.<\/p>\n

    With the whole page as context, the job also carries every untouched field of the page \u2014 its
    \nsource text and<\/em> the translation currently published for it \u2014 marked as reference material the
    \nAI must not translate or return. The AI is told to treat the published translation as approved:
    \nto reuse its terminology, keep its tone and formality, and not to “improve” a word your
    \ntranslator chose.<\/p>\n

    This is the mode to pick if you correct translations by hand and want new content to sound like
    \nthe corrections rather than like a fresh translation. Your corrections are part of the context<\/strong>
    \n\u2014 they are read back from the translation exactly as the default delta mode reads them, so the AI
    \nis shown your wording, not the wording it produced originally.<\/p>\n

    The cost.<\/strong> Every update sends the entire page to the AI on top of the strings being
    \ntranslated, so an update to a long article is priced closer to a full re-translation than to a
    \ndelta one \u2014 while still writing only the changed strings, and still protecting everything else.
    \nIt is deliberately the expensive option: it exists for sites where translation quality matters
    \nmore than the token bill.<\/p>\n

    The exact shape of that reference material \u2014 and of everything else the model receives \u2014 is
    \ndescribed in How the Translation Prompt Works<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Machine-translation engines.<\/strong> DeepL and Google Translate translate text instead of following
    \ninstructions, so there is no way to give them context. With one of those selected, this mode
    \nbehaves exactly like the default one.<\/p>\n

    Nothing else changes. The same strings are compared, the same hand corrections are kept, jobs
    \nwith nothing to translate are still closed without calling the AI, and the same limits apply to
    \npage builders and custom fields as described below.<\/p>\n

    This setting only applies to content that is already translated.<\/strong> A post being translated for
    \nthe first time is always translated in full, because there is nothing to keep. The Translate
    \nAgain<\/strong> button is also always a full re-translation, whatever the setting says \u2014 that is what the
    \nbutton is for.<\/p>\n

    How the plugin decides what changed<\/h2>\n

    The comparison is WPML’s, not ours. WPML remembers the exact text it sent for translation last
    \ntime and compares it with the text now:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Identical \u2192 the existing translation is kept and nothing is sent to the AI.<\/li>\n
    • Different, or brand new \u2192 it goes to the AI.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      What counts as one “string” depends on how the post is built:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
      Content<\/th>\nCompared as<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
      Title, excerpt, slug<\/td>\nOne string each<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Body written in the block editor<\/strong><\/td>\nOne string per piece of text in a block \u2014 usually one per paragraph or heading, several for blocks that hold more than one (a list, a table, a button and its label)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Body written in the classic editor<\/strong><\/td>\nThe whole body as a single string<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Custom fields (ACF and others)<\/td>\nOne string per field<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Taxonomy terms<\/td>\nOne string per term name<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      This is why the block editor benefits most: add one paragraph to a long page and only that
      \nparagraph is translated. In the classic editor the body is a single string, so any change to it \u2014
      \neven one word \u2014 re-translates the whole body. Title, excerpt and custom fields are still compared
      \nseparately, so they are still skipped when untouched.<\/p>\n

      When nothing is sent to the AI at all<\/h2>\n

      A translation is marked outdated when anything WPML watches changes \u2014 the content, the title, the
      \nexcerpt, the terms, the custom fields. Some of those changes carry no new text to translate at
      \nall: re-arranging blocks, swapping an image, adjusting a block setting, or a field that is not
      \ntranslated, such as a price written by an importer.<\/p>\n

      When that happens the plugin finds nothing to translate, closes the job and clears the outdated
      \nflag without calling the AI<\/strong>. You are not billed, and the translation stops showing as
      \noutdated.<\/p>\n

      Corrections you made by hand<\/h2>\n

      This is the part worth understanding, because it is where the two modes differ most.<\/p>\n

      You translate a page, then open the translation and fix a sentence the AI got wrong. Later you add
      \na new paragraph to the original and update the translation. What happens to your fix?<\/p>\n

      With “translate only changed strings”, your correction is kept.<\/strong> Before sending anything to the
      \nAI, the plugin reads the translation as it stands now and records your wording as the current
      \ntranslation of that paragraph. The AI is then asked only for the new paragraph, and the finished
      \npage contains your corrected sentence plus the newly translated paragraph.<\/p>\n

      With “re-translate the whole post from scratch”, your correction is replaced.<\/strong> Every paragraph
      \nis translated again, including the one you fixed. This is intentional \u2014 it is what a full
      \nre-translation means \u2014 but it is worth knowing before you pick that option on a post you have
      \nedited by hand.<\/p>\n

      Where hand corrections are kept<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
      What you edited in the translation<\/th>\nKept when translating only what changed<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
      Title, excerpt, slug<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Body \u2014 classic editor content<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Body \u2014 block editor content<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Body \u2014 Divi, Elementor, WPBakery and other page builders<\/td>\nNo<\/strong> \u2014 correct them in WPML’s Translation Editor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      Custom fields \/ ACF values<\/td>\nNo<\/strong> \u2014 correct them in WPML’s Translation Editor<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

      Where they are not<\/h3>\n

      Page builders.<\/strong> Divi, Elementor, WPBakery, Beaver Builder, Fusion Builder and the like store
      \ntheir content in their own format, and the plugin cannot tell which piece of the translation
      \nbelongs to which piece of the original. If you edited a translation in the builder, updates to it
      \nare refused the same way as above \u2014 nothing is billed and nothing is lost \u2014 until you replace the
      \ntranslation with Translate Again<\/strong>. Do not correct page-builder translations in the builder
      \nitself.<\/strong> Make the correction in WPML’s Translation Editor, where it is stored as the translation
      \nand kept from then on.<\/p>\n

      Custom fields.<\/strong> The same applies to ACF and other custom fields: editing the value directly on
      \nthe translated post is not recorded anywhere WPML reads back from, so a later update overwrites it
      \nwith the last translated value. Change custom field translations in WPML’s Translation Editor.<\/p>\n

      Things that stop a merge<\/h3>\n

      Even with block content, there are situations the plugin will not try to resolve:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • You added or removed blocks in the translation itself.<\/strong> The translation no longer matches the
        \noriginal block for block, so there is no safe way to say which translated block belongs to which
        \noriginal one.<\/li>\n
      • The same text appears twice in the original and you translated the two copies differently.<\/strong>
        \nWPML stores one translation per distinct source text, so there is no way to keep both.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        When this happens on a translation you edited directly in the WordPress editor, the update is
        \nrefused before anything is sent to the AI<\/strong>. You get a message saying so, nothing is billed, and
        \nthe translation stays exactly as you left it. This is deliberate: WPML would not have written the
        \nnew translation to that page anyway, so paying for it would buy nothing \u2014 and the attempt would
        \ncost you your corrections on the run after.<\/p>\n

        The fix is Translate Again<\/strong>. It replaces the translation completely, in one pass, and updates
        \nmerge normally from then on. If you would rather keep what is there, edit the translation in
        \nWPML’s Translation Editor instead \u2014 corrections made there are stored as translations and are
        \nalways kept.<\/p>\n

        What a changed paragraph does to your correction<\/h3>\n

        If you correct the translation of a paragraph and then change that same paragraph in the
        \noriginal<\/strong>, the paragraph is re-translated and your correction to it is gone. Only corrections to
        \nparts you did not touch in the original survive. That is unavoidable: the source text it belonged
        \nto no longer exists.<\/p>\n

        Purely cosmetic differences \u2014 an extra space, a &nbsp;<\/code>, a different HTML entity for the same
        \ncharacter \u2014 are not treated as corrections and do not stop anything.<\/p>\n

        Which mode should I use?<\/h2>\n

        Use translate only changed strings<\/strong> (the default) for normal editing: fixing typos, adding
        \nsections, updating prices in text, extending an article. It is cheaper, faster, and it protects
        \nthe corrections you or your translators made.<\/p>\n

        Use translate only changed strings, with the whole page as context<\/strong> when the result matters
        \nmore than the cost: a flagship page, a site whose translations are proofread by a person, or
        \ncontent full of terminology that has to stay consistent from one update to the next. It keeps
        \neverything the default mode keeps and buys consistency with the surrounding text.<\/p>\n

        Use re-translate the whole post from scratch<\/strong> when the translation as a whole is no longer
        \ngood: you rewrote the original heavily, you changed the translation prompt or glossary, you
        \nswitched AI provider or model, or you simply want a clean result and do not need what is there
        \nnow.<\/p>\n

        You do not have to change the setting to do a one-off full re-translation \u2014 the Translate
        \nAgain<\/strong> button on the Translations screen always does that for the posts you select.<\/p>\n

        Checking what happened<\/h2>\n

        Every run is recorded in the plugin log (AI Translator \u2192 Logs<\/strong>). Useful lines:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • imported manual edits from the translation into String Translation<\/code> \u2014 hand corrections were
          \nfound and kept, with the number of strings.<\/li>\n
        • delta job already up to date, closing without an LLM call<\/code> \u2014 nothing changed, nothing was
          \nbilled.<\/li>\n
        • refusing to translate, WPML will not rebuild this translation<\/code> \u2014 the update was refused as
          \ndescribed above; nothing was sent to the AI and nothing was changed.<\/li>\n
        • could not match part of the translation to the original<\/code> \u2014 part of the translation could not be
          \nattributed to the original, but the update went ahead because there were no hand edits at risk.<\/li>\n
        • enqueued WPML job<\/code> \u2014 shows the mode the job ran in (delta<\/code>, delta-context<\/code> or full<\/code>), how
          \nmany fields are being translated and, for delta-context<\/code>, how many fields were sent along as
          \ncontext.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          The History<\/strong> screen lists every translation with the tokens and cost it used, so an update that
          \nonly translated a paragraph is visibly cheaper than a full one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Available in LATW AI Translator for WPML PRO. What it does When you change a post that is already translated, WPML marks its translations as outdated.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_latwm_translated_slug":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latw-for-wpml"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.latw.ai\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}