How to change your site language in Joomla 3.1

When we installed Joomla 3.0, we chose English as the default language. Joomla 3.0 is able to support different languages. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to change you site language in Joomla 3.0. Learn more about Joomla Hosting here.

Installing a new language in Joomla 3.0 is much easier than changing languages in Joomla 2.5. This is because of the new Install Accredited Language Translations tool, which allows you to install new languages without manually needing to find and download them from other sites on the web.

To install and change languages in Joomla 3.0

  1. Log into your Joomla 3.0 admin dashboard
  2. In the top menu, click Extensions and then click Language Manager
  3. Find and click the Install Language button towards the top of the page
  4. install-new-language-pack

    From either browsing the list of languages or using the search feature, find the language pack that you would like to install. Place a check in the box next to the language you would like to install, and then click the Install button.

  5. Once again, in the top menu click Extensions and then click Language Manager
  6. choose-a-different-language

    The new language you just installed should now show in the list. To make this language the default language for your site, find the icon of a star (under the Default column) and click on it. The star will turn from hollow to yellow, and you will see the following confirmation:

    Message
    Default Language Saved. This does not affect users that have chosen a specific language on their profile or on the login page.
    Warning! When using the multilanguage functionality (i.e. when the plugin System – Languagefilter is enabled) the Site Default Language has to also be a published Content language.

    If you have been following along with our screenshots, you can see that in our testing we installed the Spanish language pack. As you can see below, our site is now showing Spanish instead of English.
    spanish-language-installed

29 thoughts on “How to change your site language in Joomla 3.1

  1. Dear sir

    I want to add custom html modue button before to the home page and access to connect home page clicking custom html modue (Sinhala /English/Tamil). please help me .

     

    Salama

     

     

  2. I am trying to get to the french video page upon login in french.  When you login in french it continues to go to the english home page and switch back to english language. 

    I can only get to the french video page via the menu item which is only there for now as we get the pages designed.  Once we get it working the only way to get to the video page will be through the login in whatever language is chosen.

    Thanks!

    Bev

  3. I have gone through the walkthrough step by step and when I look at my pages, everything seems to be correct but when I login in French, I continue to go to the English Home page instead of the French Video page.  However, when I logout (if I go to the video page via the menu item) it will go back to the French Home page.  the site is https://www.mailboxclubtraining.org/

    I don’t see any  way here to include images or I would show the setup of the login.

    Thanks for your help!

    Bev

    1. Hello Bev,

      When I go to your website and choose the french language I can see the login has changed as you can see from this screenshot: https://screencloud.net/v/2Hvp

      Also when I go to the video page this is also what I see: https://screencloud.net/v/t62R

      Is this what you were looking for it to do?

      Best Regards,
      TJ Edens

  4. I followed the walkthrough step by step but the problem I am having is with the login.  I go to the correct page using the menu (for example, if I have selected French the menu changes and when I click on the “Basic Training Video – FR it goes to the french page.  However, when I login I need to go directly to the video but if I have selected French, I continue to go to the english home page and my language is back into english.  If I select English, I do go to the video page.

    I imagine there is some little thing I am missing but I don’t know where else to look.

    Thanks!

    Bev

    1. Hello Bev,

      Thank you for contacting us. We are happy to help, but will need some additional information. Can you provide a link to the site, so we can test?

      Thank you,
      John-Paul

  5. My English login page is https://www.mailboxclubtraining.org/index.php

    My French login page is https://www.mailboxclubtraining.org/index.php/fr/home-fr

    Right now I am using just the one login module.

    Thanks for your help!

    Bev

    1. Hello Bev,

      It looks like the article assigned to that page is still the English-post page. Joomla is still opening the site like it normally would, but in the case of your French Home page, you have it assigned correctly, but the post that needs to open under it is still based on the English side of your installation. To be honest, I’m probably using the wrong words to describe the specific things that need to be changed. Check out this walkthrough for creating multi-lingual websites using Joomla. You most likely have the content, but it’s simply not assigned correctly.

      I hope this helps to answer your question, please let us know if you require any further assistance.

      Regards,
      Arnel C.

  6. Thsnks Scott…  I understand that now. 

    But – how do I get to the articles in the different languages?  Do I have to create a login module for each language since you have to chose a page to go to when the login is successful?  Right now, if I choose English, I go to the correct page but if I choose French I go to the English index page.  I tried creating a French login page with the correct article to go to upon successful login but still got the same results.

    I suppose it is very simple, but I am getting more and more confused 🙂

    Bev

    1. Hello Bev,

      Can you provide us the URL to your English and French login page so we may check to see what going on.

      Best Regards,
      TJ Edens

  7. Arnel…

    I have learned a lot since I posted my last two questions!  I now have all 4 languages shown but part of the login is translated and the title is not???  Do I have to create the menu items in the desired language or will the language pack translate it? 

    We have decided that to get the articles properly translated, we will have that done by our customer.  So that question no longer is valid.

    Sorry I wrote before checking further on the first two sessions!  Thanks for your nelp.

    Bev

    1. Hello Bev,

      Language packs are not translators but rather have replacement for the specified text. You would need to create the translations in order for them to display.

      Kindest Regards,
      Scott M

  8. I am using Joomla 3.3.  I have installed the french language pack and when choosing french, part of the page is translated (user login, You are here, etc.) but the articles themselves are not translated.  I have created a copy of the english article and chose french for the language.  What am I missing?

     

    Thanks!

    1. Hello Bev,

      Sorry for the problems with the Joomla site and changing over to the French language. If you’re still seeing the previously published English pages, then it may be that the French pages are not published or configured correctly. I’m not sure how you’re going to the French pages – I’m assuming these pages are using different URLs. Your references to the French pages may need to be set – we can’t really tell without having Administrative access and looking. There is a good Joomla tutorial that you may want to review: Language Switcher tutorial. I know it’s for Joomla 2.5, but it may give you the insight on the issue of why your pages are not showing.

      I hope this helps to answer your question, please let us know if you require any further assistance.

      Regards,
      Arnel C.

  9. Hi,

    I try to instal a new language but I get the following message: 

    There are no available languages to install at the moment. Please click on the “Find languages” button to check for updates on the Joomla Languages server. You will need an internet connection for this to work.

     

    Is there a way to instal it manually?

     – Stefan

     

  10. Hi,

    I wish to automatically change the language based on the user’s IP address which will indicate the country that he currently resides. Does anyone know where I can plug in this logic in Joomla 3? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

    -Stephen

    1. Hello Stephen,

      Thank you for your question. I spent a long time searching for a solution/module for this online, and was not able to find one.

      This means you would have to custom develop/code something to accomplish this.

      If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.

      Thank you,
      John-Paul

  11. When Joomla was installed initially for us it was installed with English (UK) language.  I have now installed English (US), however, for the “content” portion of the Language Manager configuration I am unable to use “en” for the “URL Language Code” and “Image Prefix” setting because this is already being used for the UK version of English.  Any thoughts on how I can address this?

    1. Hello Kim,

      This is a part of the Joomla functionality, unfortunately. Sorry that it’s causing you a problem. The only way i could think of setting it to use a different language code would be to remove the UK version and then make sure everything is set to the US version. We use Joomla ourselves, and everything defaults to the UK version. I also tried installing the English(US) version and the only language tag I’m seeing available is “en-US” – I didn’t see any way to use only “en”. Make sure that you make a backup of your site before you try playing around with using one language or the other.

      Kindest regards,
      Arnel C.

  12. Installed 3.3.3. Changed frontend language to Russian but kept Admin interface to English UK. Now I can see a “content” tab and inside that a language profile with  Native Title(English (UK), Language Tag  (en-GB ) ,  URL Language Code ….etc … do I have to creat one such language profile inside content tab  for Russian langauge ?

    1. Hello Tarun,

      Yes, the profile tab is not translated for you. You would need to create one in the Russian language if that is the profile that you wish to use.

      Regards,
      Arnel C.

  13. For 3.2

    Go to site menu > then go to My Profile >

    And in the basic settings > check for the backend language > and select English (United kingdom )…

     

    1. Hello mohite,

      Thank you for your comment. Keep in mind that changing the language in the Profile settings, will only affect that single profile.

      If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.
      Thank you,

      -John-Paul

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