FAQ: Why do I get warnings about scripts not running as expected?

Loco Translate relies heavily on JavaScript. When each admin page finishes loading we run a few checks to make sure everything is working as it should. If there is an unexpected situation you will see a warning. The following should help you establish what is wrong and fix it.

Cached scripts

Every release of Loco Translate will include updated JavaScript files. These will always be different from the previous version and may contain new functionality. If your admin pages are loading old (cached) scripts from a previous version then you're highly likely to experience errors.

• Clear your browser cache
  Although our script URLs are versioned there are circumstances where your browser could still be loading old scripts. This is an easy fix that should always be tried in the first instance: Either empty your browser cache and refresh the page, or do a forceful reload using Shift-Reload on your browser toolbar.

• Clear any static file caches
  If your site serves scripts from a CDN or some other type of intermediary cache, ensure new versions of our JavaScript files invalidate the cache when they're updated. This is an advanced topic, so please ask your hosting provider for help if you need it.

Modified scripts

Here's a thing you might not know about WordPress plugins: Any plugin can modify the behaviour of any other plugin.

There is no real security between WordPress plugins, and Loco Translate has no special authority over its own admin pages. Any other plugin can remove or replace our code, either by accident or on purpose. Recent versions of Loco Translate attempt to detect script tampering, but really if another plugin wants to get around this, they will. They could even remove our warnings if they wanted.

• Eliminate plugin conflicts
  The easiest way to check whether another plugin has modified Loco Translate is to disable other plugins one by one and reload the page each time. If it suddenly works as expected then you'll know which plugin was causing a conflict.

• Eliminate theme conflicts
  It's also worth switching your theme in case it's running admin code too. A plugin conflict is more likely, but it's good to eliminate everything. A stock theme like Twenty Twenty is a good choice for this test.

• Disable conflicting plugins
  It's up to you whether to continue using a conflicting plugin. If the conflict is accidental or avoidable we will endeavour to resolve it in our code, but if the conflict is deliberate or due to poor coding by a third party we will not regard this as a bug.

Known conflicts

We are only aware of one plugin that deliberately modifies Loco Translate.

The "Automatic Translate Addon for Loco Translate" by Cool Plugins is not affiliated with Loco or our company. It changes the functionality of Loco Translate and has been known to cause problems.

Every new version of Loco Translate will raise errors if you have this plugin installed. The reason is that their plugin replaces our code (in the browser) with a modified copy. When we update our code their copy becomes incompatible and they have to release a new version of their plugin to fix it. We don't regard this as a bug in our plugin and we don't approve of their technique.

Note that machine translation APIs are integrated into Loco Translate without any add-ons. DeepL, Google, Microsoft and Lecto AI are available as built-in translation providers.

You are welcome to use any unofficial "add-ons" you wish, but we cannot provide any support if you are not running the true version of our product as we have provided it. If you want to report a bug, check first if the error persists with this plugin disabled.