Need Help Importing Smartcat-Exported TMX into Trados

Hi team, this is important:

I’m experiencing issues when trying to import a TMX file from Smartcat into Trados as an SDLTM. The TMX file is valid and error-free, but Trados still returns errors during import.

I am attaching Trados error screenshot.

We need a solution that works for both of us, one using Smartcat and the other Trados, so the TMX can be converted to SDLTM smoothly and reliably.

Can anyone suggest a workable fix or workaround?

Don't hesitate to reach out to me dTrados error window showing 'Import failed. The file could not be processed.' and 'The translation memory data file engine returned an error.' with OK button and links to Knowledge Base and Community.irectly on Teams.



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[edited by: RWS Community AI at 2:09 PM (GMT 1) on 11 Aug 2025]
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  •  

    Thanks for sending the TMX.  I upgraded it using Trados Studio 2024 and this worked fine:

    Trados Studio upgrade process showing four steps completed: creating translation memory, importing TMX file, building translation model, and aligning translation units.

    But is does end up being 701k Mb because it automatically aligns the TUs for fragment matching.  So I also ran a powershell import and this also worked ok:

    PowerShell output displaying translation memory processing details, including TUs processed, imported, discarded, and errors. Final stats show 159,633 TUs imported and 159,369 discarded.

    This was much faster and only 227k Mb.

    In both cases around 159k TUs were discarded... probably because they are not needed by Trados Studio at all.  This is not unusual as tools like Smartcat don't have the same level of sophistication wrt duplicates and some types of content that is automatically recognised by Trados.

    In terms of why this doesn't work for you... given the size of the files I'm going to suggest you try copying the TMX to a location that is not on a network drive.  So perhaps create a folder on your c: drive and put the TMX there before you try and work with it.  It could be that it's simply not really available to Trados Studio so it fails before it's fully loaded into memory.

    I'll send the TMs I created for you by email... or a link to them anyway.

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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    [edited by: RWS Community AI at 4:04 PM (GMT 1) on 11 Aug 2025]
  •  Thank you so much for assisting me with the translation memory. Your help is greatly appreciated.

    However, I would like to mention that we are currently using Trados 2022. While your solution worked for this instance, we are seeking a more permanent fix. The translation memory is utilized by a colleague based in Brussels, and we rely on uploading the translation memories to our shared drive for accessibility.

    Could you please advise if there's a more lasting solution to ensure compatibility across our systems?

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