How to change the default site language?

Question

I have a site with 2 language variations: DE, EN. German is set as the standard language.

A number of Chinese users are being added. Their browsers are just set up for Chinese with no other language in the list. This is normal for all foreign installations - just the national language.

Is there a way to change the standard language? Not sure if this is the best approach but it seems to be the easiest solution as the majority of foreign users will prefer English to German.

When I use UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043 WHERE SiteId = [[SiteCollectionId]] using the GUID LIKE UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043 WHERE SiteId = [GUID] it gives me error, > Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Line 3 Invalid column name

'75e111c8-9891-5697-8adc-c07f8a9ba10d'. if use UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043 WHERE SiteId = '75e111c8-9891-5697-8adc-c07f8a9ba10d' no rows are effected what is right format?

Thanks! — , Feb 06 '13 at 12:48

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 28 '12 at 10:28

4

I did it last week using this article:

Mirjam's thoughts on SharePoint: Changing the language of an existing SharePoint site

edited Feb 28 '12 at 10:28

Stu Pegg

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answered Feb 28 '12 at 07:29

Seb

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From the comments on that article: "Interesting, but the only problem here is that modifying directly the DB will invalidate Microsoft's support." – Stu Pegg Feb 28 '12 at 07:53
Yes that's the problem... – Seb Feb 28 '12 at 08:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '12 at 06:27

One way to do this without accessing the database is to use site templates (or probably even export/import).
It's not very pretty, but the theory is simple and it have worked for me:

Save site as template
Find, download and extract the WSP (it's a CAB file).
Create missing resource files, find and replace all current language ids (like 1033) with the one you want (such as 1043).
Repack the WSP (still as CAB).
Upload the WSP.

I see many issues with this approach, such as sites with publishing feature enabled (save site as template disabled) and the extensive amount of work. But at least its an option, and it might be scriptable.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 12 '14 at 12:25

1

this javascript code set language to persian forever. put this code in masterpage.

function setLanguageToPersian(){
if(_spPageContextInfo.currentLanguage != 1065) OnSelectionChange(1065);
}
_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("setLanguageToPersian");

answered Feb 12 '14 at 12:25

hemen.rohani

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whats OnSelectionChange – Batman Jun 13 '17 at 17:52

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 01 '12 at 05:59

For changing the language of all sites in the content database to Dutch the query would be: UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043

Changing the language of one site collection can be done with: UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043 WHERE SiteId = [[SiteCollectionId]]

And for changing the language of a single web or subsite you can use: UPDATE dbo.Webs SET Language = 1043 WHERE Id = [[WebId]]

How to change the default site language?

4 Answers4

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