Cannot remove the ‘sticky’ option from a post

Recently, we were trying to remove the sticky flag from a post on a self-hosted installation. We were removing the sticky option both from the posts menu and the post editor and after a page refresh, it would reappear as active.

After some troubleshooting, it appeared that the problem was with the WPML plugin. After we disabled that one, we could change the option for the sticky status. Unfortunately, when we activated the plugin again, the option returned to its previous state.

The “fix” that worked was the following:

1. We visited the WPML plugin settings page: https://example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=sitepress-multilingual-cms%2Fmenu%2Ftranslation-options.php
2. Then in the category Posts and pages synchronization, we removed the tick from the option Synchronize sticky flag and the clicked the Save button.

3. Following that, we edited our post again and removed the sticky option.
4. Afterwards, we checked the homepage that the post had been removed and then we went back to the settings page of WPML https://example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=sitepress-multilingual-cms%2Fmenu%2Ftranslation-options.php
5. From there, we enabled again the Synchronize sticky flag option, pressed the Save button to revert the change to the settings hoping the problem will be fixed eventually.

Technical Info

• WPML Multilingual CMS version 4.2.6
• WordPress version 5.8.1