WordPress disregards explicit theme settings and serves WP.org translations first

[TomasM]

My theme (Tiny Framework) explicitly states to use included language files (in functions.php):

load_theme_textdomain( 'tiny-framework', get_template_directory() . '/languages' );

I would see it fit (perhaps) to use online language pack if it is 100% complete, but what actually happens - online packs are selected regardless of the existence of the local language file.

Users started to complain as after theme update suddenly their sites became only partially translated:

​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/translation-de_de-in-tinyframework-220?replies=4

Slack conversation: ​https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/polyglots/p1472505920000036

[swissspidy]

Hey there,

Thanks for opening this ticket. I know this is currently bugging some of your users, but posting this ticket in various Slack channels right away isn't helpful for the people trying to resolve Trac tickets.

As @casiepa already pointed out on Slack, this has been an explicit change in WordPress 4.6 and it was announced well in advance. See #34213 and ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/07/06/i18n-improvements-in-4-6/.

Since your theme uses language packs, there's no need to keep translation files in your theme anyway, so users will benefit from the translate.wordpress.org system.

I'm therefore closing this ticket as that change won't be reverted. Of course discussion can continue also on closed tickets.