Yoast replaces the secondary language post contents with the primary language post contents when using Elementor+WPML

[bkwineper]

• I've read and understood the contribution guidelines.
• I've searched for any related issues and avoided creating a duplicate issue.

Please give us a description of what happened

This is originally described on this support post on Wordpress:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/yoast-replaces-the-2nd-language-contents-with-1y-lang-when-using-elementorwpml/

This may seem like a complicated scenario, but it is how we publish.

Prerequisite:

• The site uses Elementor and WPML, as well as Yoast
  

The post creation process is this:

1. A post is created in English (=primary language) and saved as DRAFT
   

2. A secondary language post (Swedish) is created, with a manually translated text, and saved as DRAFT
   

3. Sometime later (often many days), the English (primary) post is published, possibly after it has been modified
   

4. And then the Swedish (secondary language) post is published
   

IMPORTANT: Just before the posts are published (step 3 & 4) they are re-saved as drafts (in the Classic Editor). This must be done in order to get the correct publishing date and time on the posts. (If it is not done, the publishing date is when the original post was saved as draft, which obviously is wrong.)

And here comes the error:
In Step 4, it turns out that the Swedish text that had been entered in Step 2 has been replaced by the English text, the Swedish text has been deleted. And not only that, if the English text has been modified, it is not the updated version that overwrites the secondary language post but the original (obsolete) primary language text that is put there replacing the Swedish/secondary one.

You can see how this works in this Loom video:
https://www.loom.com/share/7b7a7304c61245ad932bf981c893aac0

Plugins used:

• Yoast SEO
  

• WPML (Multilingual CMS, String Translation, WPML-SEO (“glue” to Yoast))
  

• Elementor and Elementor Pro
  

• Classic Editor (NB: the text is never edited in the Classic Editor, it is just used for post metadata, like permalink)
  

All other plugins deactivated

When I deactivate Yoast and WPML SEO this does not happen.

It seems to me that this is likely related to another similar bug I reported some time back where Yoast reverts back to obsolete permalinks:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-change-permalink-when-yoast-elementor-are-active/

These two bugs are creating a lot of extra work for us so I hope they will be resolved sometime in the reasonable future. It is actually a very huge issue for us causing us significant extra work. So, for us, this is certainly a high-priority issue.

I could perhaps clarify why this is important:

This workflow may seem strange but is quite logical and straight-forward (and the way you need to do it) if you prepare several posts/articles in advance as drafts and then publish the posts one per day:

• Day 0: prepare and save as drafts a number of articles for later publication, in both languages
• Day 1 and 1+N etc: Each day, review and possibly update "today's post" in the primary language and then the secondary language then and publish this pre-prepared articles. (Each day you MUST re-save as draft in Classic Editor in order to get the correct publishing date due to a bug in Elementor.)

The bug has probably existed for about a month now, either since April or early May.

To Reproduce

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Follow the process described above and as shown in the Loom video screen recording

Expected results

1. The secondary language post should remain unchanged. The text in the secondary language should not be replaced by the primary language

Actual results

1. The secondary language post text is overwritten by the primary language post text. In addition, it is overwritten not with the current primary language post text but with an obsolete original (old) version of the primary language post text (in case the primary language post text has been changed since the first draft was saved)

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

If possible, please provide a screenshot, a screen recording or a code snippet which demonstrates the bug.

Loom screen recording:
https://www.loom.com/share/7b7a7304c61245ad932bf981c893aac0

Technical info

• If relevant, which editor is affected (or editors):

• Block Editor
• Gutenberg Editor
• Elementor Editor
• Classic Editor
• Other:

The Classic Editor is not used to edit the text, only for post metadata: permalink, tags, category, author, featured image etc.

• Which browser is affected (or browsers):

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Other:

Used versions

• Device you are using: computer
• Operating system: Win 11
• PHP version: 8.2
• WordPress version: 6.5.3
• WordPress Theme: Hello Elementor
• Yoast SEO version: 22.8
• Gutenberg plugin version:
• Elementor plugin version: 3.21.8 Standard as well as Pro
• Classic Editor plugin version: 1.6.3
• Relevant plugins in case of a bug:
• WPML Multilingual: CMS 4.6.10
• WPML SEO: 2.1.0
• WPML Stringg Translation: 3.2.11

[maybellyne]

+1 https://wordpress.org/support/topic/yoast-replaces-the-2nd-language-contents-with-1y-lang-when-using-elementorwpml/

[josevarghese]

Related issue: #21322