Understand backoff and retries

POM Translate uses three different delays or retry rules. They solve different problems and should not be confused.

Circuit-breaker backoff

Backoff delay (minutes) is the waiting period after qualifying errors reach the configured threshold. Its default is 60 minutes and its minimum is one minute.

Configure it under Settings → POM Translate → Advanced → LLM translation settings → Machine translation settings.

While the circuit is paused, new machine-translation requests return a paused message. After the delay has elapsed, the next attempted request clears the pause and can proceed. There is no need to reset daily quota usage merely to end this backoff.

Scheduled queue delay

When a scheduled queue run finishes and work remains, POM Translate schedules another run about 60 seconds later. This fixed queue interval is not the configurable backoff delay.

The next run can still be blocked by:

• the daily word or string limit;
• an open circuit-breaker pause;
• missing credits or domain authorization;
• WordPress cron not running.

Smaller-batch retry

Before sending a request, POM Translate counts the final text, including protected formatting and application markers. Oversized multi-string payloads are divided into smaller groups until each group fits the local word and string limits. A single value that remains too large is left for manual attention; its formatting markers are never cut apart to force it through.

If POM AI returns an empty, truncated, or size-like unusable response for a multi-string request that passed those local checks, POM Translate can split it into two smaller requests once. Provider-response retries remain bounded separately from local payload sizing.

For queued values, missing, empty, malformed, or marker-damaging replies are tracked per string and target locale. POM Translate retries such output up to the lower of:

• three attempts;
• the configured Error threshold.

After every still-missing locale for a queued string exhausts that allowance, the string is removed from the automatic queue but remains Pending for manual attention.

Service errors

POM AI can report temporary service conditions, rate limits, unusable output, safety refusals, authorization failures, or insufficient credits. POM Translate distinguishes retryable work from errors that require an administrator to change content, licensing, limits, or configuration.

Do not repeatedly restart a queue after a permanent error. Record the public message, correct the relevant cause, and test one small batch before resuming the remaining work.

Choose a policy

Use a longer backoff when the service or network has extended outages. Use a shorter one only when administrators are actively supervising recovery.

Regardless of the value, investigate repeated failures before using Process now again. Retrying a marker, source-size, license, or credit problem does not correct its cause.