Language switches to English when leaving from settings

• Device OS and version:cm14
• Device model/manufacturer:Samsung i9300
• F-Droid version (in the About screen):0.103-alpha2

What did you do? (clear steps if possible)

• Select non English (eg German) language in device settings
• Select system default language in F-Droid
• Open category tab
• Press back key on device
• Open F-Droid
• OK
• Open settings tab
• Press back key
• Open F-Droid
• F-Droid is English
• Kill F-Droid
• Open F-Droid
• OK

What did you expect to see?

Language should not change to English

What did you see instead?

Language is changed to English when resuming after having pressed back in the settings tab.

assigned to @eighthave

changed milestone to %0.103 - UX Overhaul

added bazaar bug labels

Just noticed another related issue

• Open F-Droid
• Tap nearby
• OK
• Kill F-Droid
• Tap settings
• Tap nearby
• English

removed milestone

added help-wanted localization and removed bazaar labels

I can't reproduce this like you listed out. I can see that occasionally when you select something in the Languages list it does seem to switch partially to English. Killing and restarting F-Droid fixes it for me. This Languages switcher is a hack that fights Android, so its never going to work great. Since Android 7.x now has language prioritizations at the system level, we will not need this Languages switcher going forward.

If anyone wants to submit patches to make this work better, we'll happily review them.

removed assignee

I can even reproduce it in the emulator. Attached a video. The interesting part appears after 30 seconds, I just wanted to show the language setup on the emulator. Before recording, I installed F-Droid 0.103-alpha2 and started it once to trigger the package updates. As you can see, the first time starting nearby, it is German. The second time it is English.

Emulator: android-25/google_apis/x86_64/

recording

I'd rather vote for removing this all together and just use the system language.

Don't like the system language? Then why do you use it anyway?

Don't like the translation? Fix it.

Android before 7.0 did not support a language priority list, you could only specify a single system language. There are many places in the world where English is not the preferred common language. For example, in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekstan, etc. they are much more likely to speak Russian than English. So if someone has their phone in Uzbek, and the app does not have that translation, the phone will default to English. With the language chooser, those users can switch it to Russian. Another example is in Spain, where people speaking Basque, Asturian, Galego, Catalan, etc. would much rather have Spanish than English as the fallback language. Android 7.0 eliminates that need, since users can set Uzbek as the first language, then Russian as the second.

Also, there are quite a few languages that are not supported by Android that have millions of speakers. For example, Tibetan and Albanian (Shqip), where were added in 7.x, and Esperanto.

@eighthave: Was this fixed in f224483e, or is that just part of the problem? If so, mentioning #943 will not be enough to auto-close an issue, you need to say fixes #943 in commits or MR descriptions.

Still an issue in alpha3.

It might start in either language, or it might change while using it, eg. Open Manage Installed Apps, go back to English.

it wasn't fully fixed yet, f224483e only improved things.

added bazaar label

changed milestone to %0.103 - UX Overhaul

assigned to @eighthave

As related enough, if you change system's language, you have to restart the fdroid client to apply the changes.

mentioned in issue #991 (closed)

Ok, I've seen this a few times now. I think it'll only do the random switch into English if you have touched the Languages menu before. If the Languages pref is always left it on System Default and never touched, then I can't reproduce the random switch into English.

I think I found a fix anyway. Reopen this bug report if you are still seeing this issue after 0.103-alpha4.

closed via merge request !501 (merged)

I am using version 0.103 now. I have reset the app's data using the AppDetails page in Android settings. Not touched the language setting. Still getting the switch to English.

The android-25/google_apis/x86_64/ emulator now does not show the language settings menu at all.

Can still reproduce it in an android-23 emulator (also without having touched the setting)

reopened

Actually on new install, in 0.103, System default is not selected as language, nothing is, so it ends up as English.

/LE: Also, even after selecting that, at random some elements end up as English.

mentioned in issue #1010 (closed)

changed milestone to %0.103.1

@licaon-kter I'm guessing you're talking about Romanian. In that case, if random elements show up as English when using Romanian, that's because the Romanian translation is incomplete. Weblate says its 93% complete: https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/f-droid/f-droid/

@ByteHamster the Languages setting in F-Droid is removed in 7.x and newer, since the system Language settings now provides a priority list. What language/country is your device set to? Have you tried manually setting the Languages preference to System Default.

@eighthave: That depends, is the app punishing me that I did not yet translate "priviledged extension" and "nearby" strings by changing random (yet translated) strings in Settings view to English? :)

I guess not, I've already tested with French, same error.

ah, ok, that I have not seen. I've only seen the whole thing switching to English.

could you take a screenshot when it happens and attach it here? multiple cases would be helpful.

What language/country is your device set to?

German

Have you tried manually setting the Languages preference to System Default.

• Kill and re-open F-Droid
• Press nearby item
• Language is German
  
  
• Kill and re-open F-Droid
• Press settings item
• Press nearby item
• Language is English
  
  
• Kill and re-open F-Droid
• Press settings item
• Select System Default language
• Press nearby item
• Language is German
  
  
• Kill and re-open F-Droid
• Press settings item
• Press nearby item
• Language is English

Also, even after selecting that, at random some elements end up as English.

Getting the same behavior in German. Did not really notice it because I just assumed that the strings are not translated. They seem to be translated though, so that's another language switcher problem ;)

Being a translator for a language, this really confuses you, "wait, didn't I translate those?!?!" ;)

why use the F-Droid Language setting? Why not just set your device to your preferred language?

It is setup in Android, what do you mean?

closed via merge request !513 (merged)

thanks for the instructions for reproducing it! This time it really should be fixed 😅

mentioned in issue #1081