Wrong language at times on my MacBook Pro

acgroupie Said:

“Wrong language at times on my MacBook Pro:I bought my MacBook Pro in Italy and chose English as the only language. But many system messages etc. keep coming up in Italian. How can I get everything into English?”

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Avoid lots of workarounds and reconfigurations. Perform the Ultimate Solution...

Reinstall the macOS Anew:

I. If it applies: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Then...

II. Reinstall the macOS Anew:

1. Boot: into Recovery Mode.
2. Open: Disk Utilities
3. Delete: the partition
4. Reinstall: the macOS

Once Installed Anew...

III. Reinstall All the Software:

1. Use Migration Assistant to move Apps a Files back in.
2. Ask developers for new software keys- but contact the developers only --- none other --- or you may end up with malware and spyware installed.

acgroupie Said:

“Wrong language at times on my MacBook Pro: [...]can you explain why you think that would be useful? In any case, I'll certainly send along a screen shot next time it happens.”

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Two Thoughts:

• “Reset the SMC and NVRAM:

Sometimes changes are made to the system and then settings (i.e. for Accessibility) become manipulated, technically.  So, reset both on your Mac.”

• Reconfigure Third-Party Apps:

It may be a Third-Party software that is installed. Anything you have that is for accessibility would reconfigure your Mac for ease of use.

acgroupie Said:

"Wrong language at times on my MacBook Pro: Here's a screenshot of what I saw when I wanted to reboot for some reason. This is typical."

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Thank you for the Screenshot!

I see, so part of the GUI is English, and the other part is Italian. And you want it all in English - understood.

My Above Reply would do just the just the job:

I need to say that a backup, and a new install in complete English would do the Job. You would migrate certain data over(not recover the Mac install - recover the full install, and this error would show up).

So, migrate it All From a Time Machine Backup:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine, then use Migration Assistant to transfer it all in from the backup.

acgroupie Said:

“Wrong language at times on my MacBook Pro:Thank you very much for the thorough explanation. I'm sure it would work, but it's certainly not worth the trouble for getting rid of what is after all a rather minor irritation (I do speak Italian)."

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You are welcome. It's just that everything would deleted and it would install as desired (English Only).

Because what you are describing simply shouldn't happen. I switch from English to French every so often for testing and that works perfectly. Obviously a system only in English should work only in English.

So, it seems like the only explanation is that your originally Italian-only system did not completely switch to an English-only system. Why that is, I don't know. But if you change the language settings again, by adding Italian as a lower priority, it might fix it. You might need to switch priorities from English to Italian and back again. Make sure to restart the system each time.

Modern versions of macOS don't handle language switches as well as they did years ago. Switching a language only switches apps after they restart. There are so many system processes that are always running that it is better to restart to get everything reset. And yet, you can have multiple users, each with completely separate languages. Go figure.

And one more thing. Double-check your language settings in System Preferences. There is a new tab in Catalina that allows you to override the language of individual apps. Make sure there aren't any apps listed in there.

Hi,

Set System Preferences > Languages & Legion, Region as Americas could solve the issue.

Did you restart after changing to English?

Was restarting several times of success?

Maybe try adding Italian, but keep it below English, then restart. If it continues, can you include some screenshots of exactly which messages are in Italian?