What happens to the translated posts when the original post is deleted in WPML?

There are times when a translated post is published, but the original post needs to be deleted.

It may not seem likely that there would be a case where you want to keep only the translated post while deleting the original, but WPML is set by default to keep the translated post as ‘orphaned’ even when the original post is deleted. Then, if WPML is deactivated or deleted, the translated posts will be displayed all at once.

Since they are stored as individual posts for each language, if they have been indexed by search engines, the translated posts will remain published and visible, so there may indeed be times when you only want to delete the original post.

Change Synchronization Options

If you want all translated posts to be deleted when the original post is deleted, you can adjust the WPML settings.

In the WPML settings page, there is a menu called ‘Post and Page Synchronization’, and you just need to select the ‘Delete translations when post is deleted’ option.