WPML Elementor Email Fix

Prevents WPML from translating Elementor Pro form email notification fields, which corrupts shortcodes like [all-fields].

The problem

WPML registers Elementor's Form widget email fields as translatable. When using Translate Everything or automatic translation, WPML translates the shortcodes in these fields into the target language — for example, [all-fields] becomes [tous-les-champs] in French.

Elementor does not recognise the translated shortcodes, so they render literally in notification emails instead of outputting the submitted form data.

The corrupted values are stored directly in the _elementor_data post meta on the translated page and do not appear in WPML's String Translation admin, making the issue difficult to spot until emails start arriving with broken content.

The fix

This plugin hooks into the wpml_elementor_widgets_to_translate filter and removes the following email-related fields from translation:

• email_subject
• email_from_name
• email_content
• email_subject_2
• email_content_2

These fields contain shortcodes and technical values rather than user-facing prose, so translating them is almost never desirable.

Requirements

• WordPress 5.8+
• PHP 7.4+
• WPML (Sitepress Multilingual CMS)
• Elementor Pro

The plugin only runs when both WPML and Elementor Pro are active. If either is deactivated, the plugin does nothing.

Installation

1. Download or clone this repository into wp-content/plugins/wpml-elementor-email-fix/.
2. Activate the plugin from Plugins > Installed Plugins.
3. That's it — no configuration needed.

Fixing already-corrupted translations

This plugin prevents future corruption but does not repair pages that have already been translated with broken shortcodes. To fix those, you have two options:

Option 1: Edit in Elementor (recommended for a few pages)

1. Open the translated page in Elementor.
2. Select the Form widget.
3. Go to Actions After Submit > Email (and Email 2 if used).
4. Replace the corrupted shortcodes (e.g. [tous-les-champs]) with the original English shortcodes (e.g. [all-fields]).
5. Save the page.

Option 2: Database search and replace (for many pages)

Run a search and replace on the wp_postmeta table where meta_key = '_elementor_data'. Replace the translated shortcodes with the originals.

Example using WP-CLI:

wp search-replace '[tous-les-champs]' '[all-fields]' wp_postmeta --include-columns=meta_value --dry-run

Remove --dry-run once you've confirmed the matches are correct. Always back up your database first.

Option 3: Direct SQL via phpMyAdmin

First, check which pages are affected:

SELECT post_id, meta_value
FROM wp_postmeta
WHERE meta_key = '_elementor_data'
AND meta_value LIKE '%tous-les-champs%';

Then fix them:

UPDATE wp_postmeta
SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '[tous-les-champs]', '[all-fields]')
WHERE meta_key = '_elementor_data'
AND meta_value LIKE '%tous-les-champs%';

Adjust the translated shortcode for your language. Always back up your database first.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later