Managed package skips

TranSFlator automatically marks fields and elements owned by managed packages as read-only in the grid. If you’re wondering why your favourite field is greyed out, this page is for you.

What “managed package” means

A managed package is an app installed into your Salesforce org from AppExchange (or from your own ISV development org). Fields, objects, labels, and layouts that came in with a managed package have a namespace prefix like ns__FieldName__c.

Salesforce locks the metadata of these components. Even a System Administrator cannot edit a managed-package field’s translation from a consuming org — only the managed package’s developer can, and only from the developer org.

TranSFlator detects the namespace prefix at scan time and greys out every component with one. It’s not a bug — it’s protecting you from deploys that would fail with “Managed package component cannot be modified”.

”But I own the managed package”

Then you need to translate it from your development org, not from the customer org that installed it. Here’s the flow:

Open TranSFlator and connect to your managed package development org (the one you cut releases from).
Scan. Fields in your namespace will now appear as editable.
Translate and deploy normally.
Cut a new version of the managed package.
Customer orgs pick up the new translations on their next package upgrade.

Unmanaged and first-generation-managed packages

Unmanaged packages have no namespace and are fully editable everywhere. Treat them like any other component — TranSFlator won’t skip them.

First-generation-managed package components installed as beta (not released) are also editable for the developer, but not for consumers.

Custom Labels

Custom Labels behave slightly differently: Protected custom labels in a managed package are locked the same way fields are. Public custom labels can be overridden per language in the consuming org, and TranSFlator does allow this — but the override is only visible in the consuming org, not in the upstream package.