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Involuntary language change of youtube account
I am English-speaking and live in North America, why is my youtube account suddenly in Italian? This has happened multiple times and i am sick of having to clear the private data on my browser so i can get youtube back to English. The problem is with youtube not my browser. Is there anyway to PERMANENTLY set my account to English so i don't have to go through this again? If this keeps happening i likely won't be coming back to youtube anytime soon.
I’m frustrated
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If YouTube or it's videos are in another language visit: http://www.youtube.com/?gl=US&persist...
You can also select a region and language using the two blue links next to the logo in the upper left.
The company and 1 other person say
this answers the question
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If you are having this problem you are not alone. Unfortunately it affects so few that I'll have a hard time explaining to developers what the problem is. If possible, please answer whatever you are comfortable with:
- What country/region/city do you live in?
- What language are most of your applications in?
- What value is in "accept-language" when you visit this page? (ex: "en-us,en;q=0.5")
- What IP does this site report? (ex: "24.5.79.31")
If this information is too private you can email me instead: philharnish@youtube.com. Thanks!
I’m hopeful
The company says
this answers the question
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Inappropriate?You can set the region and language settings in the upper left of most YouTube.com pages. Please let me know if that doesn't permanently work.
I’m hopeful
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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I have the same problem. YouTube started coming up in Russian about 3 weeks ago. Switching the preference to "UK" at the top of the page sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, and in any case it reverts to Russian next time around. Once or twice a message has appeared above a video (in Russian, with English translation available) saying "you appear to be in the UK but your language is set to Russian". I wipe all private data, cookies and viewing history and switch to English, but it re-sets every time. It happens with Google or IE, all my language preferences are set to English-GB. Going into http://uk.youtube makes no difference, it goes straight into the Russian display.. -
Inappropriate?Thanks for your reply. Yeah i used your method last time and it still wouldn't set back to English language. The only thing that worked for me to fix this language problem was to: 1.clear private data on my browser then 2. go to youtube and relogin and then magically it was in English again. But after the last time when i went back to youtube (about two days later) it had reset to Italian again.
If it goes "Italian" on me again i will again try your method. Hopefully i won't have to clear my private data again to fix it. -
Inappropriate?I just wasted ten minutes looking for this. The answer "most pages" isn't too good. Language should be a parameter in the profile.
I’m pissed off
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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To anyone who has this problem in the future, visit http://www.youtube.com/ and you will find two links (in blue) in the upper left, next to the YouTube logo. The second link allows you to change the language.
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Inappropriate?Me again. This is still happening daily BUT now at least i can switch the language back to English and it will stay that way, at least for a while. Rating a video or making a video a favorite seems to also spur on this spontaneous language shift.
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Inappropriate?If you are having this problem you are not alone. Unfortunately it affects so few that I'll have a hard time explaining to developers what the problem is. If possible, please answer whatever you are comfortable with:
- What country/region/city do you live in?
- What language are most of your applications in?
- What value is in "accept-language" when you visit this page? (ex: "en-us,en;q=0.5")
- What IP does this site report? (ex: "24.5.79.31")
If this information is too private you can email me instead: philharnish@youtube.com. Thanks!
I’m hopeful
The company says
this answers the question
3 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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As an expat living in Europe I can tell you it's a needless irritation to have to muck about trying to "fix" bad language detection. The language settings in browsers are there for that and any developer should be able to understand this.
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Actually noweyesee, from the responses I'm receiving it sounds like user defined settings (eg: browser settings) are asking YouTube for a language they actually didn't expect. Google typically errs on the side of caution with this stuff. "Doing the best we can" involves going the extra mile and getting feedback from the ordinary users in this thread (and yourself) for the unknown unknowns. The crazy insane traffic YouTube receives means anything that could happen does happen somewhere. There are dozens of engineers at Google who design, implement, and measure the behavior which is correct most often. Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the inconvenience!
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Phil, it's great that someone cares enough to have a discussion about it. In my own developments, I use a weighted system to detect language and in that system the browser setting has a greater weight than the geoIP and the domain name. Again, this is why browser language settings exist.
But regargless of the number of users/visitors, I just went back and had a heck of a time finding and setting the language without specifically remembering the fact that you click on the language. Further, it's also irritating that it seems to default to France AND français. So I have to click international or US and change the lmanguage.
Anyway, sure only a few people are affected by this but it's nice to see someone cares.
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Inappropriate?Country is UK (London)
All applications are in English (my wife translates from Russian, which is why Russian has also been activated as a secondary language input choice in Windows).
"accept-language" is reported as "en-gb,ru, q=0.5"
IP is reported as 86.134.120.138
I first noticed the problem when parts of my Firefox home pages started appearing in Russian, so I assumed it was a Firefox problem. But accessing Youtube through IE6 produces the same results. So far, all other sites accessed via either browser are 100% English. It seems to depend on whether a site offers language preferences, so it may not be specifically a YouTube problem.
I haven't tried de-activating Russian in my Windows preferences, maybe that would fix it, but I've had Russian activated for years. The Internet Explorer and Google homepages appear in English without any Russian corruption.1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Awesome, thanks for the quick response. Your accept-language entry is a good first clue. Anyone I have brought this up with says I'm crazy and that our language detection is conservative but there have been enough complaints that I wonder if we could improve it more.
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Inappropriate?I live in Hong Kong - where English is an official language, in addition to Chinese.
Now finding some youtube pages are in Chinese, and no links on them for language changing (eg support)
I've tried setting my country where I am to UK: also - on an English language page - set my language preference to English, but still getting Chinese pages and no way I can see to read them in English (paste into google translate, for garbled message?!!)
I’m frustrated
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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- What language are most of your applications in?
- What value is in "accept-language" when you visit this page? (ex: "en-us,en;q=0.5")
- What IP does this site report? (ex: "24.5.79.31")
If you aren't comfortable answering these questions here feel free to email me: philharnish@youtube.com
Thanks! -
Inappropriate?Hi Phil:
Thanks for the amazingly fast reply!
1 most of my applications are in English; English (UK) where I can set it. [Mac OS- British]
2. accept-language en-gb,en;q=0.5
1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Hey Martin, whenever this affects you visit http://uk.youtube.com/ and click the second link after the YouTube logo to select the language. Sorry for the trouble!
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Inappropriate?Well, hmmm.... - will do.
But a link on support page, re language, could surely help. [Then, say, someone who's Chinese but has poor English could visit support while in UK, and so forth.
As you appreciate - but clearly not all in google - just because someone is in a location doesn't mean they're proficient in language for that area. People presumably post to youtube while on holiday, say.
It's not that the languages aren't on google/youtube, it's just getting opportunities to see pages in language of choice.]
If google folk in charge of links/page designs don't agree, maybe could send em off on trip to foreign lands, see what they think then!1 Comment Add a comment
This answers the question
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Yeah, strange. the support pages I found have the language setting in the upper right corner for some reason. I don't know what team works on this part of the site. I'll see if it can be moved.
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Inappropriate?To youtube site today, and clicking on "Help Resources" at bottom of the page, taken to page in English, with option of simplified Chinese [tho HK uses traditional; not sure if will impact many people]
- if this happens thanks to your efforts, Phil, thanks very much!
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?Good grief, I've just gone into YouTube and tried various videos at random, and all page content is now in English. I haven't changed any settings at my end, so unless it's just a freak change in the weather, our Mr Harnish seems to done the trick. Well done, sir.
(I still have some mysterious Russian content in my Firefox homepages, but by all accounts they are less helpful about customer problems). Thanks YouTube -
Inappropriate?There were some changes last night which may have fixed the problem. I will continue to forward any problems to the right people and hopefully we'll reach a permanent solution. If things break again don't hesitate to come in here to let me know.
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?I have encountered similar problems as above.
Reading the posts here I have learned how to change the language from Japanese back to English, but the problem I have now is that it takes me to the Japanese site.
Last night I visited youtube for the first time on this new computer. I followed a link in a post to a video on the Japanese YouTube. It assigned me to Japanese even though English is the only language preference I have in Vista. Following the advice given here I changed the language back to English. Now I need to learn how to change the default YouTube location back to a global or north american one instead of the japanese sight.
I am running Vista on a brand new install and using IE
Currently anytime I visit YouTube it takes me to jp.youtube.com
I have no idea how to fix it.
What country/region/city do you live in?
USA - East Coast
What language are most of your applications in?
All in English
What value is in "accept-language" when you visit this page? (ex: "en-us,en;q=0.5")
en-us
What IP does this site report? (ex: "24.5.79.31")
76.26.83.241
Any Advice?
I’m very frustrated with the experince!!!!
3 Comments Add a comment
This answers the question
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Jailm, with any luck you just need to visit http://www.youtube.com/ The "www" means worldwide I guess. You can pick any region you would like in the upper left as well, it is the first blue link next to the logo.
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Thanks for the reply Phil.
I have been trying to use www.youtube.com but it still takes me to jp.youtube.com
I even tried logging into my account. When I do that it takes me to my home page at youtube and all is well. If I mouse up to the Videos tab and click it then takes me to jp.youtube.com.
I have tried every imaginable way to access the global youtube but I always get redirected to jp.youtube.com
I have used the globe in the upper right to select my region and it will take me to that regions home page. Then when I click on the videos tab I get sent back to jp.youtube.com
I am completely lost. -
It sounds like I need to have someone here explain how everything is supposed to work because clearly it doesn't work the way you or I think it would... Sorry for the inconvenience.
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