Android Locale Changed but translated strings not coming in the app

Question

Following is the Application code of my Android app:

public class MyApplication extends Application
{
    private Locale locale = null;

    @Override
    public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig)
    {
        super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
        if (locale != null)
        {
            newConfig.locale = locale;
            Locale.setDefault(locale);
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(newConfig, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate()
    {
        super.onCreate();
        SharedPreferences settings = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
        Configuration config = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();

        String lang = settings.getString(getString(R.string.pref_language), "");
        if (! "".equals(lang) && ! config.locale.getLanguage().equals(lang))
        {
            locale = new Locale(lang);
            Log.i("Locale" , lang);
            Locale.setDefault(locale);
            config.locale = locale;
            getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());
        }
    }
}

I have got to change the value of settings.getString(getString(R.string.pref_language), ""); from the Settings Activity of my app.

The problem is none of the strings (which have a translation) and are accessed using getString() method, are showing the translated text.

EDIT1 : I am using Android 8.0

are you using android 8 ? there is some changes on android 8 for locales — Khalid Taha, Nov 24 '17 at 00:54
Took some cue from this answer : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40221711/android-context-getresources-updateconfiguration-deprecated/40704077#40704077 and it is now working — Sparker0i, Nov 24 '17 at 11:56

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 26 '17 at 22:51

1

In android 8, the behavior of the Locales changed, now every Activity context will take its locale, i.e if you in Activity1 and changed the locale for Activity1, then Activity2 will remain on the default locale.

The solution is to change the locale for every Activity and your issue will be fixed.

answered Nov 26 '17 at 22:51

Khalid Taha

3,183
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I am facing the same issue.. How the Locale of each activity is supposed to be changed? Should I do it in onCreate before setContentView() method – saurabhlahoti Aug 29 '18 at 13:04
Still not working. Locale of the system has changed but the string file values of that locale aren't fetched. I can see the date inside the app changed to that locale language. – saurabhlahoti Aug 30 '18 at 05:46
u got any solution ? – Jithish P N Apr 14 '22 at 06:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 24 '17 at 04:19

0

When you are using getString(R.string.pref_language) the call will return the string from the language matching Locale.getDefault() as long as a translation is provided.

If a translation is not provided it will return the default language, that is the language your using in the values/strings.xml file.

All translated values are in values-xx folders, where xx is the 2 letter ISO code for the language.

edited Nov 24 '17 at 04:19

D.J

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answered Nov 23 '17 at 22:03

Ove Stoerholt

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`Log.i("Locale" , lang);` returns the 2 digit code of the language I set (hi), and I have also provided the translations for the strings referenced with `getString()` , but I am still not getting the translated values – Sparker0i Nov 23 '17 at 22:12
Strange... I remember when I first had a similar problem. I am from Norway and here we have 2 written languages, nynorsk and bokmal. At first I tried to provide a translation for no, but what I needed to provide was translations for nb (bokmal) and nn (nynorsk). Could you be facing something similar? – Ove Stoerholt Nov 23 '17 at 22:17

Android Locale Changed but translated strings not coming in the app

2 Answers2