Wikipedia Content Translation Tool displays blank page and never loads
Closed, ResolvedPublic4 Estimated Story PointsBUG REPORT
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Assigned To

Authored By

	SZ475
	Jan 14 2026, 9:13 AM

Description

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

Open a Wikipedia article
Click "languages"
Click "add languages"
Click "translate this page"

What happens?:

After this, the website either shows a blank page, or the "begin translation" screen, which also leads to a blank page

What should have happened instead?:

The Translation Tool should've load

Software version (on Special:Version page; skip for WMF-hosted wikis like Wikipedia):

Other information (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):

This happens on multiple devices, oses and browsers
The buttons from the top, like the Notifications and the User Menu, work with no issue

Screenshot 2026-01-14 110542.png (987×1 px, 50 KB)

Derived Requirement

Ensure that the Wikipedia Content Translation tool loads successfully when initiated via the language selector, without displaying a blank page, and presents a usable translation interface to the user.

Test Steps

Test Case 1: Ensure Content Translation tool loads correctly from the language selector

*Preconditions:*

User is logged in to Wikipedia.
User is using the mobile skin (Minerva).
Source article exists and is available for translation into at least one additional language.

Open any Wikipedia article.
Tap the “Languages” option from the article toolbar.
Select “Add languages”.
Select “Translate this page”.
Observe the page load behavior after initiating the Content Translation tool.
✅❓❌⬜ AC1: Confirm that the Content Translation tool loads without displaying a blank page and translation interface remains interactive and does not stall, while global UI elements (e.g., notifications, user menu) continue to function normally.

QA Results - TestWiki

AC	Status	Details
1	✅	T414558#11543312

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
TitlePairRequest: Fix incorrect calculation of missing variable	mediawiki/services/cxserver	master	+3 -1
Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver	mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation	wmf/1.46.0-wmf.10	+13 -14
Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver	mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation	wmf/1.46.0-wmf.11	+13 -14
Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver	mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation	master	+13 -14

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T413646: Content Translation: cannot select an existing target article; section translation is published to a redirect instead of the main article (target language: Russian).
Mentioned Here: T413646: Content Translation: cannot select an existing target article; section translation is published to a redirect instead of the main article (target language: Russian).

Event Timeline

SZ475 created this task.Jan 14 2026, 9:13 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJan 14 2026, 9:13 AM

Aklapper edited projects, added ContentTranslation; removed Wikipedia-Preview.Jan 14 2026, 9:21 AM

Thanks for reporting this. Cannot reproduce with Firefox 146.
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation?from=en&to=ro&page=Potentiometer loads as expected.

Does this also happen in a fresh, clean browser user profile with zero browser add-ons and zero browser extensions?

Could you please open your web browser's developer tools, and check the "Console" and the "Network" tab for any errors?
For more information please see:

Thank you Aklapper for your answer.
It seems like there are errors in the logs:

Screenshot 2026-01-14 113406.png (174×561 px, 19 KB)

Screenshot 2026-01-14 113800.png (768×557 px, 85 KB)

By the way, I tried translating on a mobile device too which doesn't have extensions, so i think it is not the reason, but the chances are never 0.
It happens on a fresh incognito profile too.
Is it possible to be because of some cache on my account? Or some error in the cached website code? I have no idea

Nikerabbit changed the task status from Stalled to Open.Jan 14 2026, 2:31 PM

Nikerabbit triaged this task as Unbreak Now! priority.

Nikerabbit added projects: LPL Projects (Other), Unplanned-Sprint-Work, LPL Hypothesis.

SBisson changed the task status from Open to In Progress.Jan 14 2026, 2:40 PM

SBisson assigned this task to ngkountas.

SBisson moved this task from Backlog to In-progress on the LPL Hypothesis board.

Change #1226870 had a related patch set uploaded (by Nik Gkountas; author: Nik Gkountas):

[mediawiki/services/cxserver@master] TitlePairRequest: Fix incorrect calculation of missing variable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226870

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Jan 14 2026, 3:17 PM

Change #1226873 had a related patch set uploaded (by Nik Gkountas; author: Nik Gkountas):

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226873

Change #1226977 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sbisson; author: Nik Gkountas):

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.11] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226977

Change #1226873 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226873

Nikerabbit merged a task: T414654: Translation tool for w:mr stopped working.Jan 15 2026, 8:09 AM

Nikerabbit moved this task from Needs Triage to Dashboard on the ContentTranslation board.

Nikerabbit added a subscriber: abhaynatu.

ngkountas moved this task from In-progress to Needs Code Review on the LPL Hypothesis board.Jan 15 2026, 10:57 AM

ngkountas set the point value for this task to 2.

ngkountas changed the point value for this task from 2 to 4.

(Using Opera GX, btw)
It seems to be an incorrect reading from the query. It assumes it has a targettitle field, while it actually just has this structure:

const query = {
  from: "en",
  to: "pt",
  page: "Godville" // it's the page I was trying to translate
};

It gets these fields from the url search parameters, and this is the url I'm getting, for example:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation?from=en&to=pt&page=Godville

This means that as a temporary fix, you can append &targettitle=Name to the end of the url, where Name is the name of the page you're creating or adding sections.

The images bellow show where the error occurred and the code composing the calling stack to where the mismatch first occurred.

// Title.js

// mw.cx.utils.js

//mw.cx.init.js

Change #1226977 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.11] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226977

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-01-15T14:39:24Z] <sbisson@deploy2002> Started scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1226976|CX3 Build 1.0.0+20260114 (T413646)]], [[gerrit:1226977|Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver (T414558)]]

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-01-15T14:41:31Z] <sbisson@deploy2002> sbisson: Backport for [[gerrit:1226976|CX3 Build 1.0.0+20260114 (T413646)]], [[gerrit:1226977|Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver (T414558)]] synced to the testservers (see https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mwdebug). Changes can now be verified there.

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2026-01-15T14:47:31Z] <sbisson@deploy2002> Finished scap sync-world: Backport for [[gerrit:1226976|CX3 Build 1.0.0+20260114 (T413646)]], [[gerrit:1226977|Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver (T414558)]] (duration: 08m 07s)

Change #1227361 had a related patch set uploaded (by Sbisson; author: Nik Gkountas):

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.10] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1227361

Change #1227361 abandoned by Sbisson:

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@wmf/1.46.0-wmf.10] Fallback to source title if target title is not provided by cxserver

Reason:

Abort mission

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1227361

Paucabot subscribed.Jan 15 2026, 5:08 PM

MrNinja subscribed.Jan 15 2026, 7:07 PM

This appears to be fixed on all wikis. Please comment here if it's not the case.

It has been fixed. Thank you!

Change #1226870 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/services/cxserver@master] TitlePairRequest: Fix incorrect calculation of missing variable

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1226870

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Jan 16 2026, 2:31 PM

GMikesell-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Wed, Jan 21, 8:18 PM

GMikesell-WMF updated Other Assignee, added: GMikesell-WMF.

@ngkountas Confirmed Wikipedia Content Translation Tool does not display a blank page and loads, as seen in the videos below. I will move this to Sign-off. Thanks for all your work!

Test Result - TestWiki

Status: ✅ PASS
Environment: TestWiki
OS: macOS Tahoe 26.2
Browser: Chrome 143
Device: MBA
Emulated Device: NA

Test Steps

Test Case 1: Ensure Content Translation tool loads correctly from the language selector

*Preconditions:*

User is logged in to Wikipedia.
User is using the mobile skin (Minerva).
Source article exists and is available for translation into at least one additional language.

Open any Wikipedia article.
Tap the “Languages” option from the article toolbar.
Select “Add languages”.
Select “Translate this page”.
Observe the page load behavior after initiating the Content Translation tool.
✅AC1: Confirm that the Content Translation tool loads without displaying a blank page and translation interface remains interactive and does not stall, while global UI elements (e.g., notifications, user menu) continue to function normally..

En	Hausa	Hebrew

GMikesell-WMF updated the task description. (Show Details)Wed, Jan 21, 8:37 PM

GMikesell-WMF updated Other Assignee, removed: GMikesell-WMF.

GMikesell-WMF moved this task from Needs QA to Design Signoff on the LPL Hypothesis board.

SZ475 closed this task as Resolved.Wed, Jan 21, 8:40 PM

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Wikipedia Content Translation Tool displays blank page and never loadsClosed, ResolvedPublic4 Estimated Story PointsBUG REPORTActions

Description

Test Steps

QA Results - TestWiki

Details

Related Objects

Event Timeline

Test Result - TestWiki

Test Steps

Wikipedia Content Translation Tool displays blank page and never loads
Closed, ResolvedPublic4 Estimated Story PointsBUG REPORT
Actions