If you can’t get past the language configuration wizard, there’s probably something wrong between WPML, your theme and other plugins. This FAQ will help you identify these problems, so that we can find a solution and get you going.
1. Enable a PHP debug file
When you activate WPML, it creates language tables in your database. We need to know if anything went wrong during that critical initialization phase. For that, we’ll need to see a full log of the PHP errors and warnings.
Follow the steps for debugging WPML. You need to enable the error log file and not the error output to the screen.
If this file becomes loaded with issues, don’t panic. You’re seeing every notice, warning and (unfortunately) errors created by WordPress, your theme and all plugins. We’ll know what to get from that file.
2. Reset WPML and reactivate it
Now that you’re logging errors, let’s start from scratch.
Go to WPML → Support page. Open the link that leads to Troubleshootingpage. At Troubleshooting page click on «Reset all language data and deactivate WPML». There’s a safely checkbox above that button. This isn’t a toy button. It’s going to completely reset WPML and permanently delete language information from your site. Do this only if you haven’t configured WPML and you don’t have any translations yet.
After this, go again to Plugins and enable WPML.
3. Go again to the languages setup
Now, go again to the languages setup and try to complete it. If all goes well, you’ve had some communication glitch before and the language setup wasn’t complete. If you’re seeing the same error as before, do one more thing — check for any Javascript errors.
WPML’s language configuration screen uses Javascript. If anything in your site is causing a Javascript error, you’ll notice it here.
You can use Chrome or Firefox. Click on Tools → Javascript console and reload this page. The console should be clean. If there’s any message, let us know exactly what it says.
4. Let us help you
Now that you have a PHP error log and you know what the Javascript console says, we can certainly help.
Go to our technical forum, start a new thread, tell us which versions of WordPress and WPML you’re using, what other plugins are active and what’s your theme. Also, tell us about your type of web server.
Even if you see similar threads, please start your own. Everyone has a different set of plugins and different theme and problems are different. We want to help you with your problem, not someone else’s.