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WooCommerce Translations Not Working? A Troubleshooting Guide

24 threads Sep 7, 2025 Plugin → Woocommerce

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If your WooCommerce store is displaying the wrong language or stubborn English text despite your best efforts, you're not alone. This is a common issue that can stem from various sources, from recent WordPress core changes to theme overrides. This guide will walk you through the most effective troubleshooting steps to get your translations working correctly.

Why Are My WooCommerce Translations Not Showing?

Based on common community reports, the issue can be caused by several factors:

  • WordPress 6.5+ and the .l10n.php Format: A significant change in WordPress 6.5 altered how translations are loaded, prioritizing new .l10n.php files. Custom .po/.mo files in the /wp-content/languages/plugins/ directory may be ignored if an .l10n.php file exists, which can cause custom or updated translations to not appear.
  • Theme Overrides: Many themes replace default WooCommerce templates. If the theme's templates or text strings are not properly prepared for translation, your site language settings will have no effect on them. This often affects strings like "Next," "Previous," or "Filter by Price."
  • Caching: Aggressive caching at the server, plugin, or browser level can serve old, cached English text even after translations have been updated.
  • Incomplete Translation Files: The stable translation files for your language on translate.wordpress.org may not be 100% complete for the latest WooCommerce version.

How to Troubleshoot and Fix Translation Issues

1. Apply the Core Fix (For WordPress 6.5+ Users)

If you are running WordPress 6.5 or later and manually manage translation files, ensure your WooCommerce is updated to version 9.8 or higher. The WooCommerce team merged a crucial fix (#53955) in this release to resolve conflicts with the new WordPress translation system. Updating is the first and most important step.

2. Use Loco Translate for Customizations

For translating specific strings or creating custom translations, the Loco Translate plugin is the recommended tool. It creates and loads custom translation files from a safe directory (wp-content/languages/loco/plugins/), preventing them from being overwritten by updates.

  1. Install and activate Loco Translate.
  2. Navigate to Loco Translate → Plugins and select WooCommerce.
  3. Click on your language (e.g., "Deutsch" or "Italiano") and then click "Edit" to open the translation editor.
  4. Use the search function to find the untranslated string, enter your translation, and save. Loco Translate will handle creating the correct files.

3. Check Your Theme

If translations work with a default theme like Storefront but not your current theme, your theme is the culprit. Strings that are part of the theme's template files must be properly internationalized to be translated. Contact your theme's support team and ask them why specific WooCommerce strings are not translatable.

4. Clear All Caches

After making any translation changes, clear all types of cache:

  • Any WordPress caching plugins (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache)
  • Server-level cache (e.g., Varnish, OPcache; you may need to contact your host)
  • Your browser cache (try a hard refresh with Ctrl+F5)

5. Verify the Source of the String

Some strings, particularly on the checkout page, may come from a payment gateway plugin or another extension, not WooCommerce core. Deactivate other plugins temporarily to see if the translation issue resolves itself. If it does, reactivate them one by one to identify the conflicting plugin, then use Loco Translate to translate strings for that specific plugin.

When All Else Fails

For a single, stubborn string that refuses to translate, you can use a code snippet in your child theme's functions.php file. Replace the example text with your specific string and translation.

function custom_woocommerce_translation( $translated ) {
    $translated = str_replace( 'There was an error during the payment.', 'Il y a eu une erreur lors du paiement.', $translated );
    return $translated;
}
add_filter( 'gettext', 'custom_woocommerce_translation', 20 );

Warning: Always use a child theme when modifying theme files to prevent your changes from being lost during updates.

By methodically working through these steps, you should be able to identify and resolve the majority of WooCommerce translation issues. The most common solutions are updating to WooCommerce 9.8+ and using Loco Translate to manage custom translations effectively.

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