WPML All Import: skip it, because it has been retired

WPML All Import is a retired solution, not a sensible new purchase. The plugin was built to connect WP All Import with WPML so you could import posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies, media, custom fields, and WooCommerce products in multiple languages. That core idea is useful, especially for multilingual catalogs and migrations, but WPML now labels the add-on as legacy and says it is no longer supported or recommended.

The old workflow was capable but demanding. You needed WP All Import, WPML, WPML String Translation, and WPML All Import installed together. WooCommerce imports added more dependencies: the WooCommerce Product Import add-on and WPML Multilingual & Multicurrency for WooCommerce. Multilingual data also had to be prepared carefully. The documented process required separate files for each language, a unique identifier linking translations, taxonomy imports before posts or products, and a parent-language relationship when importing secondary-language content.

That complexity was the product’s genuine strength as well as its main weakness. When the data was clean and the import order was correct, it could connect translated posts or products instead of leaving separate, unrelated records. It also supported simple and variable WooCommerce products, custom fields, taxonomies, and media. For an agency preserving an existing workflow, that may still be valuable.

However, the margin for error was small. A missing identifier, incorrect language context, duplicate SKU, or wrong import setting could create extra products, fail to connect translations, or leave translated products in draft status. WPML’s support discussions document cases where equivalent products appeared in one language but not another; in one resolved case, disabling WP All Import’s setting to skip unchanged WooCommerce products fixed the import. That is not a reason to reject WPML generally, but it shows why this workflow needs staging, backups, and careful validation.

The stronger objection is strategic: the official documentation now directs users to WPML Export and Import. The replacement separates the jobs more cleanly: your chosen import tool moves the data, while WPML Export and Import reads language columns and links translations afterward. For custom CSV or XML files, the current documentation requires three language columns: a translation group, a language code, and a source-language code. It also provides a WP-CLI command, wp wpml import process, for deployment and scheduled workflows.

Compared with the native WooCommerce CSV importer, WPML Export and Import involves more setup but is the better fit for multilingual product relationships. Compared with WP All Import alone, it adds the language-linking layer that a multilingual store needs. Compared with Polylang, the choice depends on the translation system you already use, but neither alternative makes a retired WPML add-on a good foundation.

Verdict: avoid WPML All Import for new work. Keep it only when maintaining an existing site where the old import process is already tested; otherwise, use WPML Export and Import with WP All Import Pro, the native WooCommerce importer, or another supported import tool.