Latest auto-update changes language from English

English
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#1

Hi, LibreOffice just did an auto-update to latest 25.2.4.3 and suddenly the user interface is no longer in English, but some weird language. As far as I can tell it is Russian, but in front of the main menu items it puts a letter ‘A’. I tried following through lists of instructions where to find the user interface language setting [when navigating the menus in an unfamiliar language] and got the UI drop-down - but this did NOT offer me a load of languages, only 4, none of which was English.
On my PC (Windows 10) the Region is UK, UI language English (USA); everything else runs fine in English.
I uninstalled and re-installed, deselecting all UI languages apart from English but it still did not work - the UI was still in some Russian /Cyrillic language with no way to change.

Any suggestions?
For now as I have things to do I have installed Open Office …

TIA

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#2

This is odd. en-US should always be part of the installation; was it unchecked when installing? You maybe could modify the installation by invoking the installer again and explicitly install en-US UI.

Reinstalling the program files does not reset the user profile. If en-US language was installed you could try with temporarily moving the LibreOffice user profile away, or invoke LO from the command line with

soffice --language=en-US --safe-mode

and from the dialog try Reset to factory settings settings and user interface first, or if that doesn’t help then Reset entire user profile. Note that in between you need to restart LibreOffice normal to see whether UI language is en-US and if not invoke with safe mode again for second reset. But for all this to work en-US language must be installed already and then probably would already be used or at least offered.

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#3

There is tdf#164070, which might be related. Today it got a comment referencing https://www.reddit.com/r/libreoffice/comments/1lj8sgu/why_my_libreoffice_auto_updated_and_put_the/ .

A screenshot could be helpful.

2 Likes
#5

I am in Australia and have the same problem. Windows is set to English (United States) but Libre Office auto updated to a language that is some sort of Cyrillic. My father was Bulgarian and I can read it but don’t understand it. There are some characters such as crossed k that are not used in Bulgarian or as far as I know Russian or Ukrainian. I can’t find where the language is set. Is there a way I can get it back to English without complete re-install?

#4

Hi. Exactly the same here today after an automatic update which I never activated.
I’m under Win 11, I live in Brazil, the OS is in English and the LibreOffice interface language is in French. Reading you, the problem may be here because on another PC, but all in Portuguese, the also unexpected update of LO run fine.
I tried to reinstall/repair the latest v25.2.4.3, roll back to v24.8.7.2 (which automatically updated to v25), rebooting the PC each time, all without success.
The solution is: after uninstalling LO and the language helppack (if needed), reboot the PC, go to C>Program Files and delete the folder LibreOffice. Reboot the PC and reinstall LO with the options of your preference. Everything’s fine now and I even didn’t loose my former preferences (tools displayed in Writer, Calc, etc.).

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#6

Same problem here. The suggestion of Safe Mode doesn’t help as that came up in the same unreadable language!

#7

Well I’ve got back to a working installation but it was a struggle:

  1. Completely uninstall LibreOffice
  2. Download installer for 24.8.7.2
  3. Install 24.8.7.2 but don’t open it yet
  4. Disconnect the PC from the internet
  5. Open LibreOffice
  6. In Tools, Options, Online Update disable Enable automatic update and apply.

Without that last step it immediately upgrades again.

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#8

When you already had the upgraded version installed, and before uninstalling it, you could disable the updating there, and then downgrade. Since the user settings are kept in user profile, then are unaffected by the reinstallation procedure, and take effect immediately.

#9

You are missing an obvious point! When I can’t read any of the menus or dialogues, how do you expect me to find the option to disable the updating?

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#10

Yes, you are right. And guess why? Because it’s not obvious for a person not seeing it (and so would need to repeat “they can’t read it; they can’t read it” when thinking about solutions) - and everyone thus far has ignored my “a screenshot could be helpful” request above. Yes, it’s more obvious, when you see it on a screenshot.

#11

I was able to fix it by turning off automatic updates, uninstall then installing 25.2.2

I did some tinkering in Google Translate and found the language seems to be Abkhaz.
I suspect the bug may be related to the fact that this is the first language in the list at Language/Support - The Document Foundation Wiki

I found the settings by installing 25.2.2 on a laptop.

I’m only allowed one screenshot so here is how to find the settings in Abkhaz:

To open the settings dialog go to Tools > Options.
In Abkhaz this is the last entry with the gear icon on the menu “Acервис” > “Апараметрқәа”

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In the LibreOffice group select “Арҿыцрақәа ргәатара” just above “OpenCL”.
De-select the lowest check-box on the pane, “Автоматла арҿыцра”.
Click OK to confirm this.

You should now be able to install 25.2.2 without it updating automatically to 25.2.4.

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