• General

  • GrapheneOS randomly changes the device language

I have a Pixel 6, running the latest version of GrapheneOS.
The system lanaguage of my device is set to English.

I noticed that randomly, some elements in the system, specifically the notification bar, change to Korean, for no reason at all.
Sometimes its even a mix of English and Korean (Some elements stay english others are in Korean).
And then sometimes it randomly dissapears again. I can see no pattern that causes this.

Below are some screenshots showing that some elements are in English, some are in Korean...

Screenshots: Click

    • fid02

      • Post #2

      6gsxdr3U Do you have more than one system language set? If so could you send a list of the system languages in the order they appear in your system language settings?

      6gsxdr3U running the latest version of GrapheneOS.

      Which build number? Settings > About phone > Build number

          Build number: 2025010700

          Yes, I do have multiple system languages set, however, I have set English as the primary language.
          So this doesnt explain random mixing of languages for certain UI elements.

          System Language Settings: https://i.imgur.com/YrHMBzp.png

          P.S. For some reason I cant seem to embed images, hmmm

          Blastoidea No, I am not located in Korea.
          The VPN connection connects to my home network, which is not in Korea. (And even if it was, it shouldn't change UI element languages randomly)

          I do however have the Naver keyboard installed to type in Korean.
          But again, this doesn't explain the random behavior of the system UI elements.

            I am also experiencing this issue

            I'm having an issue where my system languages get resorted. I suspect it occurs with every new OS update. Will try to reproduce at some time. Common denominator is system languages but might not be related to the OP's issue.

            I am encountering this right now my case arabic and english in UI is mixed, and system language is english US and settings app is displayed in english as always did for me

            • pxlkng

              • Post #12
              • Edited

              I am having a similar issue.

              Randomly the full system UI (not only parts of it) change to my secondary system language. Only started happening recently, never happened before in 2+ years. My main system language is English and I always keep the UI on English.

              I couldn't make out any trigger or reason, it is not happening after a reboot but instead a couple of hours into using the system, sometimes the phone was running for a day or so. I haven't had it disappear by itself and needed to reboot to restore normal state.

              Likely introduced by one of the last few upstream versions.

              Good to know that other people are having the same issue.
              That means it's not a problem with my cobfiguration/device only.

              I wonder if the devs can track back which commit introduced this issue?

              This has also happened to me, once so far, on build 2025011500 on Pixel 8. The notifications drawer/shade (however it's called nowadays), the Quick Tiles, and the power menu from the Quick Tiles all switched to the secondary system language I had configured, despite the primary language being marked visually as the one used for the UI. I was using an app in landscape orientation in fullscreen mode just moments before I discovered this issue, and it quite surprised me as I frequently check the notifications drawer and Quick Tiles so it probably happened very recently at the time I discovered it rather than discovering it after a long delay after it had already happened.

              I suggest anyone experiencing this to save a System Log before rebooting in this way: Settings app –> System –> View logs –> Save button. (System Logs saved after rebooting would probably be much less helpful.) Then submit this log privately to a GrapheneOS official. Personally, I did just that and pinged one of the project's officials about this, but they're busy and haven't seen it yet.

                Watermelon I suggest anyone experiencing this to save a System Log before rebooting in this way: Settings app –> System –> View logs –> Save button. (System Logs saved after rebooting would probably be much less helpful.) Then submit this log privately to a GrapheneOS official. Personally, I did just that and pinged one of the project's officials about this, but they're busy and haven't seen it yet.

                There's an open issue on Github (issue #4340) which sounds like the same issue. It's marked upstream though, so might not be much GrapheneOS can do about it. But that's probably the best place to report it. And if you don't want to submit a log publicly they have a specific email adress for logs: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/4697#issuecomment-2600185203

                    I have the same thing happening, except the UI switches to Japanese. I am very happy about it though as localisation has been a requested feature, so if the cause is found out I hope the developers of GOS hide a switch somewhere that can turn it on back again :D

                    DeletedUser202 The concept of the email address dedicated for logs is great because it reaches the entire team so anyone available could check it, and also isn't posted permanently in a public/archivable location. But the problem is that it'd still be stored in my mailbox and may not be transmitted securely between my email provider and their email server.

                    What's the kind of privacy and/or security risk that could be by publicly posting a system log with the highest verbosity level and all log buffers included? What kind of potentially identifying or sensitive information could be in it?

                    Has the GrapheneOS team considered adding a preinstalled app (or adding a feature to one of the existing apps, e.g. Info or Settings) to collect logs, encrypt them with a public key for the GrapheneOS team, and send it? Could also just open a Compose Mail activity with the encrypted logs attached and set to send to the logs address, but the logs would be encrypted throughout and unreadable by the email provider.

                        • Dde0u

                          • Post #18

                          Watermelon What's the kind of privacy and/or security risk that could be by publicly posting a system log with the highest verbosity level and all log buffers included? What kind of potentially identifying or sensitive information could be in it?

                          Usernames and passwords would be bad and, unfortunately, not impossible. Not all app code is top-quality!

                              • fid02

                                • Post #19

                                Watermelon

                                Logs can also be forwarded to a GrapheneOS moderator on Matrix, who can then forward them to the developers: contact info

                                    de0u I understand what you're saying, but that sounds like an issue of (optional) third-party apps rather than the base OS.

                                    • de0u replied to this.