No PO-Files found – even for standard WordPress Themes

Standard WordPress themes will ship with a valid POT file, but won’t contain any PO files unless you download a non-english version. Is this what you’ve done? If so, which language version did you download?

The message “no translatable strings” does not mean there are no PO files. It means Loco failed to find a POT file, then tried to extract strings directly from PHP source code and failed to find any of those.

If Loco can’t find POT files in standard themes like twentyfifteen then it sounds like a filesystem issue of some kind. If file permissions are all marked as “OK” does this list of files also include a POT file?

Hi Tim,

thanks for your super quick reply.

I am not sure what you mean bei “does this list of files also incude a POT file”, but maybe this screenshot helps:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zpxh2jnjygjexh9/Screenshot%202015-07-14%2014.50.36.png?dl=0

I guess I should see at least some translations or languages available but I don’t?

Clicking “OK” will show all files found.
It looks from this like it cannot file a POT file, because it would also appear in the Template (POT) column.

Can you verify if your theme folder contains a POT file?

For twentyfifteen it will be at:
wp-content/themes/twentyfifteen/languages/twentyfifteen.pot

Hello!

I am having the same problem. Loco Translate can’t find any translateable strings in all of my plugins and themes (which is not true).
I tried to translate the Cooked-Plugin and already spoke to their support. They say there must be some issue with the Loco Translate Plugin.

The folders of my plugin contain .po and .mo files. I checked this.

There’s nothing to say your issue is the same as the person who opened this thread.
Please open a new thread for your issue and post a link to the plugin you have a problem with.

Hi Tim,

I checked with twentyfifteen as an example:

There is a twentyfifteen.pot in the languages folder.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bja8987g12gh7tj/Screenshot%202015-07-16%2011.12.49.png?dl=0

It shows no translations on the Overview Page of Logo.

Checking file permissions this is what it says:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lati7cn5pe6al5n/Screenshot%202015-07-16%2011.19.05.png?dl=0

I am almost certain it is some kind of permission issue on the server, but I do not know where to start or what to ask when calling the support of the webhosting company.

It would be great if you have an idea on that one.

No translations is normal. Not ‘seeing’ the twentyfifteen.pot file is the problem. As you say, almost certainly a server issue. I can’t support you on that.

If you have a support package with your hosting provider, make them earn their money. Tell them what you’re telling me. That you can see a file (presumably over FTP or similar) but applications running on the server cannot see it.

Hi Tim,

thanks! I was hoping that you have had a similar issue already before and might know where to start searching, but I will contact web hosting support now and try to get them to clear this out.

Many thanks for your patience!

Hi Michaela,
did you manage to solve the problem?
I suffer exactly the same an hope I can get a hint.

Thank you!

Hi MiDu,

I found one possible solution that worked while trying to mirror the site in question from current host (Strato) to Domainfactory.

Once moved to Domainfactory I realized that the path to the language files saved in the Database remained the old paths, most likely the paths to the original Sandbox-Domain.

Once I changed the total paths in the Database languages could be choosen on the Domainfactory account.

Unfortunately, back at the Strato-Account that did not work. I changed the paths in the database to Strato total paths, but languages still did not appear. So I fear this is (at least in my case) somehow related to CHOWN at Strato, but Strato support was not able to work this out for me. I finally gave up and translated the files using Po-Editor.