Per-app language ignored

[sls1005]

Checklist

• I can reproduce the bug with the latest version given here.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Affected app version

1.8.1

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

Android 15

Affected device model

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G (SM-M336B)

How did you install the app?

F-Droid / IzzyOnDroid

Which calendar service or provider do you use, if any?

None

Which sync adapter app do you use for calendar synchronization, if any?

None

Steps to reproduce the bug

1. Set system language to language A.
2. Set app language to language B.
3. Open the app.
4. See language A.

Expected behavior

Per-app language should be prior to system language.

Actual behavior

App UI displays system language and ignores per-app language.

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No response

Additional information

1. The per-app language is English. The system language is not English. English could be special (or not).
2. If the bug is not reproduced, close the app and open it once more.
3. See https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/app-languages.
4. See [BUG] Per-app language setting not reflected to app descriptions Droid-ify/client#1138 (a similar issue I opened for an unrelated app). The difference is that, the UI of this app is affected.
5. The widget is also affected. But it had been like that for a long time. (Displaying in system language randomly, ignoring the per-app language)
6. I've tried setting the per-app language to each of English (US), English (UK), English (Ireland), English (Australia) and English (India); all gave the same or similar results.
7. This issue can also be observed in other Fossify apps.

[naveensingh]

This issue can also be observed in other Fossify apps.

Issues affecting multiple apps belong in the General Discussions repository. Please file this here.

[sls1005]

I may not open an issue there. The exact same issue is already mentioned here and is already "closed" a year ago. I need the original poster to reopen it.

P.S. I know the answer to this language problem. I had encountered it in my projects. The answer is that values-en and values-rUS are missing, and that values-rGB is empty. The newer versions of the system makes no assumption on the default resource language and will not fallback to it if there is a qualified locale that matches the system language. The English resources are therefore ignored unless qualified or unless the system's first language is English.

[naveensingh]

That was a different bug that only affected Google Play installs because language resources were being delivered on demand by Google Play.

What was Language A in your report? I have tried to reproduce this on Android 16, which is fairly recent.

[sls1005]

Chinese (Traditional).

[sls1005]

My project is here. You may see how I dealt with it. Basically, you need a separate values-en folder, and its strings.xml must not be empty and must contain the actual English strings, as it will never fallback to values if the resolution is intercepted by another system locale. Copy values/strings.xml into values-en/, let other English locales fallback to values-en/.

There was a file in which you can specify what the unqualified locale is, but it seems to be ignored in newer versions of the system.

I can tell that the problem has been solved in my project by having a separate values-en that contains actual strings. But my theory also has a flaw: it suggests that the unqualified locale always has lowest priority, and therefore, anyone whose system language setting is English first, Spanish second, would always see Spanish, if English resources were unqualified, regardless of any other settings. (Not sure if true or false.) If they still see English, the assumption that unqualified locale is English would still be partially true.

Maybe it is just Samsung or this model, or just Android 15. I can feel that this new system behavior was supposed to be helpful instead of causing problems to bilingual persons. Only Google knows what they are thinking.

[sls1005]

it suggests that the unqualified locale always has lowest priority, and therefore, anyone whose system language setting is English first, Spanish second, would always see Spanish, if English resources were unqualified, regardless of any other settings. (Not sure if true or false.)

True. I tried reversing my system's language priority so that it is now English first, Chinese second, and then every other app is in English, but Fossify apps are still in Chinese.