Translation Studio Troubleshooting

Symptom-by-symptom resolutions for the most common Translation Studio issues. If your symptom isn't here, double-check the user's language preference, the language's active status, and whether the underlying item still exists.

A Language Doesn't Appear in the Studio

Symptom: A language you expect isn't selectable in the Studio's language dropdown.

Cause: The language is not active on the portal. Translation Studio only lists active languages.

Resolution: Activate the language on the Language Settings tab in Translation Studio (Setup > Manage > Translation Studio > Language Settings), then reload the Studio.

A User Isn't Seeing the Translated Values

Symptom: A translation is saved in the Studio, but a specific user still sees the master (English) value.

Causes and resolutions:

1. The user's language preference doesn't match the translated language. Open the user's profile and confirm the preferred language is set correctly. Translations are served based on the user's language preference.
2. The translation field was saved empty. An empty translation falls back to the master value. Reopen the item in the Studio and confirm the translated value is present.
3. The user's session is cached. Have the user sign out and back in.
4. The user's language is not active. Translations for inactive languages are not served.

An Item Doesn't Appear in the Navigation Tree

Symptom: A field, button, or other item you expect to translate isn't in the Studio tree.

Causes and resolutions:

1. The item doesn't exist on the entity (e.g., field deleted, button removed). Confirm the item is present on the entity in Setup.
2. The aspect doesn't apply. Some aspects only appear when populated (e.g., field Help Text shows only when the field has a non-empty help text; Record Type Description shows only when described).
3. The item is excluded from translation by design. Module-feature Menu Items (Articles, Training, etc.) are translated through their owning module's resource files and are not editable in the Studio.

CSV Import via Data Import Wizard Rejects Many Rows

Symptom: A bulk import using the Translation Studio target in Data Import returns many failed rows.

Causes and resolutions:

1. Wrong language code in the import. The language code in the CSV must match the active language code (e.g., fr, pt-BR). See the supported language codes.
2. Source items changed between download and upload. If you downloaded the template and an admin deleted or renamed items in the meantime, rows for those items fail. Re-download the template and re-merge your translations.
3. Translation value exceeds the maximum length. Different item types have different limits (e.g., Field labels have lower limits than Custom Label values). Trim long translations.
4. Encoding mismatch. Use UTF-8 to preserve non-Latin characters.

Download the failure file from the Import Results page to see the exact reason for each failed row.

Translations for a Picklist Don't Show on a Dependent Picklist

Symptom: A picklist is translated, but a dependent picklist that filters by it still shows English options.

Resolution: Dependent picklists translate their own option labels separately. Open the dependent picklist in the Studio and translate its options. The dependency relationship is preserved automatically.

Custom Labels Are Not Translating in Active Pages

Symptom: A Custom Label is translated in the Studio, but the Active Page that references it still shows English.

Causes and resolutions:

1. Wrong reference syntax in the page. Confirm the reference uses the Custom Label's unique name (e.g., {!$Label.MyLabel}). The Name field on the Custom Label record is the identifier.
2. The page caches at the framework level. Some Active Page rendering paths cache translated output. Save the page to invalidate the cache.
3. The user's language doesn't match. Confirm the test user's preferred language is the one you translated.

Translation Studio Is Not Visible to a User Who Should Have Access

Symptom: An internal user reports they can't see Translation Studio in the Setup menu.

Resolution: Open the user's Security Role and confirm:

1. The user is an Administrator, OR
2. The role has Enable Translation Studio Access.

Partner and customer users do not have access. Internal users without one of these two conditions cannot reach the Studio.

REST API Returns 403 "Forbidden"

Symptom: Programmatic access to /api/3.0/translations returns 403.

Cause: The user account whose token is being used lacks Translation Studio authorization.

Resolution: Use a host user's refresh token or grant Enable Translation Studio Access to the calling user. See Translation REST API v3 Overview for the authorization model.

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