Why are language extensions not visible & selectable?

After I installed LibrOffice 4.2 (Windows 7, 64 bit, English), I wanted to write a letter in German. However Writer did not let me select the German language, although I was sure I had installed and used that extension in the past. There were just three languages to choose from, English-US, English-UK and Dutch. I then reinstalled the German language extension, and the procedure told me that I was installing a newer version than the one already installed. After that I still could not select the German language. In the extensions manager I found the extension, but it had a padlock symbol. I then used the LibrOffice installation procedure to install all languages, and all off them now show up with a padlock. How can I resolve this problem?

Please first try resetting the user profile, sometimes solves strange issues.
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile

I observed a while ago a similar or the same problem. German dictionary was not available suddenly. At the next LibO update I made another customized installation and saw that the dictionary selection was not matching my needs at all. I reselected my languages and continued with the installation and then it work. To me it seems that the default installation “forgets” sometimes the language settings.

@DirkMunk - May I ask you to file a bug report and publish the bug number here as well?
For bug reports please use: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/

Please try:

Menu Tools → Language → For all Text → More…

Default languages for documents Western: Select German (Germany)

:ballot_box_with_check: For the current document only (enabled — if required only for this document)

☐ For the current document only (disabled — if required as default language for all documents).

(The padlock symbol indicates, that it is a “bundled language module extension” — installed with LibreOffice.)

See also:

(1) this check list
(with regard to the German language module)

(2) How can I put three languages to quick language change menu?

See also: How to activate the German dictionary extension?