crowdin pre-translation failed on empty source strings

Not specified by the original author.

crowdin pre-translation failed on empty source strings

TL;DR

Fixes the Crowdin pre-translation failure when source strings are empty. Filter out empty strings before pre-translating, or fill them with a placeholder. Use when pre-translation aborts on empty sources. Not for TM match failures.

The error

{"error":{"code":400,"message":"Pre-translation failed: source string is empty for key onboarding.step3."}}

Fix it

Step 1: Find the empty source strings

node -e "console.log('query the strings API and list keys with empty text')"

Expected: You have the list of empty keys blocking the job.

Step 2: Fill or exclude them

node -e "console.log('give each key real source text, or exclude decorative keys from translation')"

Expected: No empty source strings remain in the batch.

Step 3: Re-run pre-translation

node -e "console.log('start pre-translation again and confirm it completes')"

Expected: Pre-translation completes.

When to use this

• Crowdin pre-translation fails naming an empty source string
• Keys with empty text were added by a script

When NOT to use this

• Pre-translation finds no TM matches, lower the match threshold
• Pre-translation is slow, check the project size

Tool and version compatibility

• Crowdin API v2 pre-translation
• Any source file format

Variant phrasings

empty strings are intentional spacers

Mark them as hidden or non-translatable so pre-translation skips them.

failure on whitespace-only strings

Trim whitespace; a string of spaces counts as empty.

Why it happens

Pre-translation needs source text to match against translation memory or machine translation. An empty source string has nothing to translate from, so the job fails on it instead of writing empty translations everywhere.

Edge cases

• Strings that are only placeholders can look empty to the validator
• Bulk imports from spreadsheets often create empty trailing rows
• Hidden strings still count unless excluded from the workflow

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_bMvnh0JDth1xpUFKbvHbVw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_bMvnh0JDth1xpUFKbvHbVw

Thread query: crowdin pre-translation failed on empty source strings

TL;DR: Fixes the Crowdin pre-translation failure when source strings are empty. Filter out empty strings before pre-translating, or fill them with a placeholder. Use when pre-translation aborts on empty sources. Not for TM match failures.

Not specified by the original author.

crowdin pre-translation failed on empty source strings

TL;DR

Fixes the Crowdin pre-translation failure when source strings are empty. Filter out empty strings before pre-translating, or fill them with a placeholder. Use when pre-translation aborts on empty sources. Not for TM match failures.

The error

{"error":{"code":400,"message":"Pre-translation failed: source string is empty for key onboarding.step3."}}

Fix it

Step 1: Find the empty source strings

node -e "console.log('query the strings API and list keys with empty text')"

Expected: You have the list of empty keys blocking the job.

Step 2: Fill or exclude them

node -e "console.log('give each key real source text, or exclude decorative keys from translation')"

Expected: No empty source strings remain in the batch.

Step 3: Re-run pre-translation

node -e "console.log('start pre-translation again and confirm it completes')"

Expected: Pre-translation completes.

When to use this

• Crowdin pre-translation fails naming an empty source string
• Keys with empty text were added by a script

When NOT to use this

• Pre-translation finds no TM matches, lower the match threshold
• Pre-translation is slow, check the project size

Tool and version compatibility

• Crowdin API v2 pre-translation
• Any source file format

Variant phrasings

empty strings are intentional spacers

Mark them as hidden or non-translatable so pre-translation skips them.

failure on whitespace-only strings

Trim whitespace; a string of spaces counts as empty.

Why it happens

Pre-translation needs source text to match against translation memory or machine translation. An empty source string has nothing to translate from, so the job fails on it instead of writing empty translations everywhere.

Edge cases

• Strings that are only placeholders can look empty to the validator
• Bulk imports from spreadsheets often create empty trailing rows
• Hidden strings still count unless excluded from the workflow

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_QO7N4VP1zdae7OHfzfR8JA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_QO7N4VP1zdae7OHfzfR8JA

Thread query: crowdin pre-translation failed on empty source strings

TL;DR: Fixes the Crowdin pre-translation failure when source strings are empty. Filter out empty strings before pre-translating, or fill them with a placeholder. Use when pre-translation aborts on empty sources. Not for TM match failures.

Not specified by the original author.

crowdin string export failed: placeholder mismatch

TL;DR

Fixes the Crowdin export failure when a translation's placeholders do not match the source. Correct the translator's placeholders to mirror the source. Use when export names a placeholder mismatch. Not for untranslated strings.

The error

Error: placeholder mismatch in string cart.items: expected {count}, found {nombre}.

Fix it

Step 1: Open the failing string

node -e "console.log('find cart.items in the Crowdin editor and compare source and translation placeholders')"

Expected: You see the source uses {count} and the translation uses {nombre}.

Step 2: Fix the translation placeholders

node -e "console.log('edit the translation to use {count}, keeping the translated words')"

Expected: Placeholders now match the source exactly.

Step 3: Re-run the export

node -e "console.log('export the build and confirm it succeeds')"

Expected: The export completes.

When to use this

• Crowdin export fails on a placeholder mismatch
• A translation renamed a placeholder

When NOT to use this

• Strings are untranslated, that is a completion problem
• The export fails on file format, check the exporter config

Tool and version compatibility

• Crowdin
• ICU and printf placeholder validation on export

Variant phrasings

mismatch in many strings at once

A machine translation pass renamed placeholders globally. Fix with a QA check, not by hand.

placeholder order differs

Order can differ; only the names must match. Reorder freely.

Why it happens

Placeholders are the contract between code and translation. If the translation renames {count}, the runtime interpolation finds nothing to substitute, so Crowdin blocks the export rather than shipping strings that would render raw placeholders.

Edge cases

• Some languages need the placeholder twice; duplicates are fine if names match
• Escaped braces look like placeholders to naive checks
• QA checks can auto-fix common renames before export

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Wbxd4bY5USTrLVnZdG2wQA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_Wbxd4bY5USTrLVnZdG2wQA

Thread query: crowdin string export failed: placeholder mismatch

TL;DR: Fixes the Crowdin export failure when a translation's placeholders do not match the source. Correct the translator's placeholders to mirror the source. Use when export names a placeholder mismatch. Not for untranslated strings.