Homepage suddenly translated into English - Wordpress issue

[wolfie]

We had the strangest thing happen yesterday, our homepage was suddenly translated from Dutch into English (seems like a google translate kind of job). This is something we did not do ourselves, nor want (of course). Does anybody have any idea what might have caused this and how to fix it? I have tried to restore former versions of the homepage but that doesn't help as these have been translated as well. The website is www.casinobazen.nl and we are using the Protheos theme.

[universal4]

Sounds like a plugin caused this, unless the theme has a built in translator.

Hopefully you have a database backup in case you have to do a restore.

I must say I do not think I have ever heard of this happening maybe someone can shed some light on this for you.

Rick
Universal4

[DaftDog]

If you have a backup I would install that immediately. Then change all WP and server passwords.

As Universal said it could be a plug-in that you've installed or were recently experimenting with.

Maybe somebody is messing around with you. I would double check that you don't have another user registered with privileges that would allow them to change your content. Did you give your login details to somebody that was assisting you recently?

[JackTenSuited]

Showing in dutch for me. Are you sure you don't have any browser translation plugins activated?

[PromoteCasino]

Dutch for me (London)

[-Shay-]

Did your site "auto update" to the new release of wordpress yesterday? Ours did and I do not recall setting up the automatic update. I prefer to get a notification and then manually update the CMS. Anyway, I ask because the automatic update could have something to do with this perhaps?

[wolfie]

Thanks, we just fixed it ourselves by putting the old text back, did not want to wait an longer in order for things in Google not to get messed up. No idea what happened there but we did remove all other users with privileges. I hope the theme maker gets back to us on this because he did do some changes in CSS recently and I now strongly believe that may have caused the problem. Thanks again all.

[DaftDog]

@Shay - WordPress will update automatically when it's a security update. Version updates are done manually.

@Wolfie - The theme you are using will have nothing to do with your problem as it does not have any translation options and CSS changes only effect the styling and layout of a theme.

[universal4]

If automatic updates are disabled then wordpress can not and should not update automatically....period whether it is a security update or not.

Sorry but no cms should ever have more permission to do what it wants that an administrator says no to.

Rick
Universal4

[DaftDog]

If automatic updates are disabled then wordpress can not and should not update automatically....period whether it is a security update or not.

Sorry but no cms should ever have more permission to do what it wants that an administrator says no to.

Rick
Universal4

https://codex.wordpress.org/Configur...ground_Updates

[pokeraussie]

Did you have a translation plugin installed?

[Ares]

This sounds very strange, have you found out what happened?

[wolfie]

Hi all, turned out a third party that was doing some work accidentally translated the page and forgot to change it back. He has apologized and that is that. Stupid mistake but we are all human, it happens. Thanks again for all your advice and we are glad it wasn't a hacker playing stupid tricks.

[universal4]

Thanks for the link daftdog, but there are clear instructions on ways to disable automatic updates.

I have seen automatic updates crash wordpress installs (this is documented by a client)

There is actually no way wordpress would ever be able to update any installs on my sites as I do NOT allow write access to the root folder. If I need to update wp I provide access do the updates and then remove the access again.

Personally, I am likely more security conscious than most, but I think this is not a good way forward to turn on updates that the average user can not disable by ticking a box to disable updates. This means the wordpress folks think its ok to writes to YOUR server folder, even though you told them not to.

Making the change in the config file is certainly easy enough, but that is a change from ticking or un-ticking a box that says allow updates.

Rick
Universal4

edited to add: If you look at what wordpress states,

and translation file updates are enabled on most sites.

My guess is that is what happened in this particular situation, and is a clear indication where an automatic update could break or make unwanted changes to a site and the site owner would not even know until they caught it after the fact.

By keeping updates OFF site owners have the ability to perform FULL backups immediately before any updates so if anything breaks, they know immediately and can restore the backup.

[DaftDog]

Thanks for the link daftdog, but there are clear instructions on ways to disable automatic updates.

I have seen automatic updates crash wordpress installs (this is documented by a client)

There is actually no way wordpress would ever be able to update any installs on my sites as I do NOT allow write access to the root folder. If I need to update wp I provide access do the updates and then remove the access again.

Personally, I am likely more security conscious than most, but I think this is not a good way forward to turn on updates that the average user can not disable by ticking a box to disable updates. This means the wordpress folks think its ok to writes to YOUR server folder, even though you told them not to.

Making the change in the config file is certainly easy enough, but that is a change from ticking or un-ticking a box that says allow updates.

Rick
Universal4

edited to add: If you look at what wordpress states,
My guess is that is what happened in this particular situation, and is a clear indication where an automatic update could break or make unwanted changes to a site and the site owner would not even know until they caught it after the fact.

By keeping updates OFF site owners have the ability to perform FULL backups immediately before any updates so if anything breaks, they know immediately and can restore the backup.

I never stated that there were NOT any "clear instructions on ways to disable automatic updates." I posted the link for information purposes only.

There is a difference between security updates and version upgrade updates. Security updates are very unlikely to crash your site and I have never had a crash caused by this. I allow auto security updates as I feel they are beneficial to the security of my sites. Version upgrades I do manually as I agree that this could conflict with certain plug-ins or themes, especially old out-dated ones.

I make daily backups just in case something does go awry. At the end of the day it is up the webmaster to decide on the pro's or con's of auto security updates. I'm not trying to force my opinion on anybody.

[universal4]

Actually, any update has the potential of going sour, while most security updates would not.

However, none of their "automated updates" make a backup of the website folder OR the database before they run. But a human can do this if THEY control the update process, and prior to version 3.7 website owners and administrators could more easily control the update process, and now the wordpress developers have chosen to add extra steps to allow administrators to control that process.

ANY single update theyput out has the potential to be incompatible with a theme or a plugin or any other app a site owner might run. This would not be a problem to the lionshare of site owners around the world, but could be financially devastating to any single site owner.

Older versions made the choice more simple.

I think wordpress makes a great product, and the support base built over the last few years will likely not be replaced by any competitor in the near term and will likely continue to gain marketshare for a long time.

I just personally feel they overstepped it a little when they tried to force remove the ability to stop auto-updates.

Regardless, I am glad that wolfie was able to fix his issue that was most likely caused by a wordpress update that took place without being given the chance and choice to back it up first.

Rick
Universal4

[DaftDog]

Regardless, I am glad that wolfie was able to fix his issue that was most likely caused by a wordpress update that took place without being given the chance and choice to back it up first.

Rick
Universal4

wolfie's problem was not caused by a WordPress automated update. He stated what the problem was.

Hi all, turned out a third party that was doing some work accidentally translated the page and forgot to change it back. He has apologized and that is that. Stupid mistake but we are all human, it happens. Thanks again for all your advice and we are glad it wasn't a hacker playing stupid tricks.

[universal4]

Thanks I had missed that, but have seen updates cause issues.

Rick
Universal4

[Celebrationbird]

U havnt mixed with the google translate widget?