Updates, support, and safe maintenance

POM Translate updates use the private POM release channel. Maintenance should protect both the canonical WordPress content and the separate translation, slug, software-catalog, route, and cache state built around it.

Before an update

1. Read the release notes for changes to extraction, rendering, placeholders, URLs, selectors, machine translation, WooCommerce, SEO, REST/AJAX, or storage.
2. Record the installed POM Translate version.
3. Confirm Settings → POM Translate → License shows a valid domain authorization.
4. Create a current database-and-files backup.
5. Open Settings → POM Translate → Tools → Translation maintenance and use Export translations.
6. Record one source and localized URL for every affected content type or integration.
7. Capture the translation status and visible result of those representative objects.
8. Schedule route, email, checkout, bulk-generation, or storage changes for a suitable maintenance window.

The JSON export preserves stored translation text, status, and protected markup. It complements the full database backup; it is not a replacement for source posts, terms, menus, settings, or software-translation files.

How update discovery works

The common POM updater can discover an installed POM Translate update from the main or network update screen even when the plugin is inactive. If that shared updater is unavailable, an active POM Translate installation can use its local signed fallback.

Both paths require a stored valid POM Translate license. On multisite, the fallback requires the plugin to be network-active or active on the main site, and update discovery uses the network license.

Use Dashboard → Updates or Network Admin → Dashboard → Updates. Do not replace the plugin with an unverified repository archive.

Verify the updated plugin

After WordPress reports success:

1. confirm Plugins shows the expected POM Translate version;
2. open Settings → POM Translate and confirm every required settings area loads;
3. open Translations → Translate contents and confirm locale, status, and object filters work;
4. edit and save one representative source post;
5. confirm its translation summary and stored target values remain coherent;
6. open its source and localized routes while signed out;
7. inspect the selector, canonical, alternate-language links, and internal link;
8. repeat each WooCommerce, email, REST/AJAX, or software-string path changed by the release;
9. clear only cache layers containing changed output.

A successful file replacement does not prove that a localized route or reconstructed body still matches the approved source.

Routine editorial maintenance

After changing source content:

• save the canonical object so POM Translate can refresh its discovered values;
• review missing and changed target values;
• check protected markers before saving;
• review localized slugs only when the public URL should change;
• test the target route after cache invalidation.

After removing a language, use the translation-maintenance tools to identify inactive-locale data only after redirects, links, SEO discovery, and historical public URLs have been reviewed.

Do not use Reset translation storage as a cache purge. It permanently clears the stored multilingual dataset and requires a database backup and deliberate rebuild plan.

Prepare a useful support request

Provide:

• POM Translate, WordPress, and PHP versions;
• single-site or multisite topology and the affected site;
• source and target locales;
• affected public URL with private tokens removed;
• post type, taxonomy, or integration;
• exact administration path and visible setting labels;
• steps to reproduce;
• expected and actual result;
• whether the source route works;
• whether the problem changes without page cache or CDN;
• sanitized status, response-header, placeholder, or error details.

Never provide:

• POM Translate or POM AI license keys;
• WordPress, hosting, database, email, payment, or CDN credentials;
• authentication cookies, nonces, or signed request headers;
• customer, order, or account personal data;
• unrestricted exports or raw logs containing private information.

Controlled recovery

If an update causes a regression:

1. stop bulk or machine-translation work;
2. preserve the failing URL and sanitized evidence;
3. bypass stale page and CDN copies;
4. restore the previously approved plugin package through the normal deployment process;
5. restore the database only when stored data or schema changed;
6. re-import a translation snapshot only when its source values still match exactly;
7. repeat the recorded source and target tests.

Deactivating POM Translate stops its runtime hooks but does not erase stored translations. It can also remove localized routing and rendering from public requests, so deactivation is not a transparent frontend rollback for an already launched multilingual site.