Title: phantom languages appeared, cannot remove Last modified: May 24, 2023 --- # phantom languages appeared, cannot remove * [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/) * I’ve been using Polylang for years, but now I noticed all of a sudden 2 new languages appearing. I get the error message that I need to have translations for these languages. Consequently all my posts and pages are missing in the admin section. Frontend looks and works fine. * I cannot remove these nameless (empty) languages, page reloads and they stay there, no content is associated with them. Cannot edit them either, not that I want to… Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/page/2/?output_format=md) * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16767941) * I have exactly the same problem. 2 blank languages appear and affecting all my backend site. I cannot delete them or edit them. * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16768072) * Hm, now I don’t know if its good news or bad news, lol. * At this stage its good. If it stays like this….really bad! * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16768095) * the only good is that you are not the only one. I believe more would have the same problem because those languages have appeared from nowhere. No-one add anything. Maybe it’s something with a plugin or the new wordpress update * Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/) * (@chouby) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16768147) * Hello, Could I have a screenshot showing these “languages”?Have you an idea of the action that you did that could have created them? Did you recently update a plugin or your theme? Did you install recently a new plugin? * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16768646) * Here is the screenshot from my website. I suppose it would be the same for [@andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/). * In my case except that the wordpress updated to 6.2.2 and we installed the WP OPTIMIZE plugin (which we uninstalled it) nothing else changed. Everything was working few days ago even with the WP OPTIMIZE plugin enabled * [https://im.ge/i/ha9iha](https://im.ge/i/ha9iha) * ![](https://freeimage.host/i/Hr29DG9) - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/). - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/). * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16768878) * Yep, exactly that. * I also have a warning in Languages menu on the top of the page: * “You must translate your static front page in [](https://culinaryinstituteofeurope.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=page&from_post=22&_wpnonce=ac063be878), [](https://culinaryinstituteofeurope.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=page&from_post=22&_wpnonce=ac063be878).” * Notice the comma and the dot at the end of the warning. Not so easy to find that in Phpmyadmin, which I am trying now… * edit: * I found this option table (in phpmy…): “_transient_pll_languages_list” where there seem to be 2 extra languages. The problem is its injected from somewhere else, so I cannot delete. - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/). * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770130) * I found that string too but I don’t know if I can delete something from it. * Also I noticed that every time i go in to the language page it adds articles in my default language, yesterday it was 2590 and now it’s 3362. * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770139) * I wrote to (presales) support and eventhough I am using the free version they said they would still look into it, fingers crossed… * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770223) * Have you noticed if the ammount of translated articles is increasing every time you go in the languages page, or hit refresh in that page? * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770313) * No, that is not happening on my end. Sounds troubleing. - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/). * Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/) * (@chouby) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770384) * Did you install and test another multilingual plugin on your site in the past? * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770453) * I think I have, some years ago. * Thread Starter [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) * (@andraspal) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770553) * ..and I fixed it. * So looking at transient_pll_languages_list table records I noticed those phantom records without names. Looked at terms ID and term_taxonomy IDs and found out“ falang” had created those some years ago, so I delete these IDs from terms table and then I could truncate the transient_pll_languages_list table. All is back to normal. Yess!:-) * [https://im.ge/i/hDCTDC](https://im.ge/i/hDCTDC) - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/). - This reply was modified 3 years ago by [andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/). * Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/) * (@chouby) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770720) * Yes. That’s the track we are following. It looks like this issue occurs on sites where Falang was installed and not completely uninstalled. This plugin is partially based on Polylang and uses taxonomies as we do, but in an incompatible way. Moreover what I can experiment today with its current version may be different from what occurred with older versions of Falang. Anyway, with older versions of Polylang, the remaining language data from Falang were in some way hidden. With the version 3.4, they appear in the list of languages as empty languages. This also fires a load of PHP warnings.We are preparing a fix to avoid Polylang to be disturbed by these remaining data. * [rippergr](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rippergr/) * (@rippergr) * [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/#post-16770889) * [@andraspal](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andraspal/) Can you tell me what exactly have you delete and from which tables? I don’t understand which one is the id Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total) 1 [2](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/page/2/?output_format=md) [→](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/page/2/?output_format=md) The topic ‘phantom languages appeared, cannot remove’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/polylang/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3433336) * [Polylang](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/polylang/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/polylang/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/polylang/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/polylang/reviews/) * 18 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/) * Last activity: [3 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/phantom-languages-appeared-cannot-remove/page/2/#post-16780140) * Status: not resolved