Discussion: Edge displays in an unexpected language

[kopoku]

Hey Insiders, thanks for your continued feedback to help us improve Microsoft Edge! Recently we have noticed a trend in feedback stating that Edge is displaying in an unexpected language. Receiving this feedback is helpful in highlighting the importance of Edge meeting your global readiness expectations.

Global readiness can be difficult to get right with users speaking several languages, living in other countries, and wanting to see web content from other parts of the world. Edge tries to manage this with the 'Preferred' languages' list in Edge Settings (edge://settings/languages). The order of the languages signals to webpages what languages (or locales) you prefer. While this is a standard web practice, not all sites respects this signal from web browsers and sometimes use your IP address to determine the best language and regional content to display to you.

For Edge on Windows, 84 of the preferred languages can be selected as the Edge display language which determines the language and regional formatting of the Edge user interface. For Edge on Mac, the same 84 display languages can be set based on the operating system display language. Note, changing the Edge display language will put that language at the top of your preferred language list in Edge, but you can always re-order and add more languages to the list.

Now for the problem at hand, we’d like to get additional context on how Edge can better meet your global readiness expectations. What aspect(s) of Edge are displaying in an unexpected language?

• Edge user interface (menus, toolbars, settings, developer tools, etc.) displays in an unexpected language
• The New Tab Page, which shows news and weather, displays content in/ an unexpected language or region
• Websites you browse are appearing in an unexpected language, and Edge doesn't offer to translate the page
• Other

- The Microsoft Edge Team

[#2]

@kopoku 

Thanks for your post. I suspect my situation is close to the issue that you raise.

Since recently adding sync to my account, both Edge user interface and The New Tab Page appear in German. I am an anglophone who lives in the French part of Switzerland and don't know a word of German, so don't even know how to access settings (all in German) to correct this. English is selected under My profile. 

[#3]

@kopoku I recognize the problem but what is the solution? When will that be posted. I just purchased a new computer after having given up on edge I tried it again. In 3 days it was in chinese. I can not read it. I do not have that option selected in my computer OR browser. Brave has no problems, Opera has no problems, Chrome has no problems, Firefox has no problems. The only browser that mysteriously changes language is Edge and this goes back to 2020. Still, no solution despite many many many people talking about it. 

I am all about microsoft. I use all of the products but edge is useless to me in Chinese and there is no fix 3 years later.

[#4]

@kopoku 

I realize this post is old, but I'm hoping you can help here. I have an issue where random pages will show up in German - so far i've noticed it on docs.microsoft.com & on hp.com. I do not have German (or any other language besides English) in my Windows settings and I do not have any other language besides English setup within Edge. The New Page Tab is always in English. Most other pages are too. I usually am starting from a Bing search, and I have gone back to make sure the result is in English and so far, it always is, but when I click to go there I get German. Edge never offers to translate. I've only seen this issue on my work laptop, that has never been outside the US. This is on Windows 11. Hopefully something here will help.

[#5]

@kopoku My Edge browser is stuck in German.

Preferred language is ENGLISH

Additional Language also ENGLISH

Removed all the cookies, history, cache 

IT IS STILL IN GERMAN

How do I fix it? Please help this is frustrating.

[#6]

As soon as I use a VPN edge (canary) seems to force the language of the country I'm 'connected to' on me.
I realize it's easy to check where my endpoint is, and apparently edge makes use of it, but it would be great if you could explain how edge makes use of it and how to override it.
Because apparently much of the language selection I do in edge language configuration is ignored, and this is not always what people want.
What for instance if I'm traveling - I might want to be able to select to either operate as if I'm still at home (as far as possible, at least when it comes to language and in what language I get ads) or in the country I'm visiting.

[#7]

@kopoku Ever since I used a VPN that routed to a Dutch site, I've been getting stuff in Dutch, as well as English, even though I no longer use that VPN or any of the many I've tried sine, and nothing shows up as VPN in settings/Network. How do i stop this?

[#8]

Exactly the same here. Did you ever find a solution? Or is there a feature request?

[#9]

@kopoku Why is this continuing to happen again?? Tons of people online talking about it, non stop changing to simplified chinese. Half in English and half in Chinese. Absolutely ALL settings are set to English and US region, app and phone. This is ONLY with the edge browser. This has become an absolute nightmare. 

[#10]

 

 

@Jayt83 

[#11]

Still happening.

[#12]

For the New Tab Page... Nope. That's wrong. In Edge Settings (edge://settings/languages), I have only TWO languages listed. In order, they are: English (United States) and English. But the New Tab Page doesn't display in EITHER of these. Very odd. For the System settings, I have three languages I have THREE languages. In order, the preferred languages (for Microsoft Store apps) are English (United States), English (United Kingdom) and Thai. And Windows display language is English (United States). So, tell me why the New Tab Page is in Thai. I don't understand.

[#13]

I gave up and went back to using firefox on all of my devices and just using the Microsoft account sync that is now embedded into firefox. works great and i never have any issues anymore.