Many strings in Android app switch itself to English, most often taxon names but also some app strings

[vladimir_fuka]

Platform (Android, iOS, Website): Android 12

App version number, if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About): 1.29.2 (576) Please note that the language of the system is English and it differs from the language selected in the app.

Region for common names: Czechia

Browser, if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) :

URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages:

Screenshots of what you are seeing (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/):

Description of problem (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.):

Step 1: Set the app to Czech.

Step 2: Use the app for some time.

Step 3: See many strings be in English. The first and most annoying being the common names, but scientific name strings like “Genus” or “Complex” as well and also some app strings like tabs “OBSERVATIONS”, “SPECIES”, “OBSERVERS”, “IDENTIFIERS”.

Step 4: Switch the app to English. Switch the app back to Czech.

Step 5. See everything in Czech.

Step 6. Go to Step 2 and repeat indefinitely.

[tisli]

The same happens for every Android version I have used using Dutch and many names appearing in English or scientific names first. Even though I have it set to Dutch names first. It happens so often I barely pay attention to it most of the time…

Currently on 1.29.3 (577)

[tiwane]

I made a Github issue for this a few weeks ago. Does this describe it pretty well? https://github.com/inaturalist/iNaturalistAndroid/issues/1285

[tisli]

Good enough. However, I suspect there to be multiple causes of this. I feel it sometimes, somehow, has something to do with other info I load in the app. Some interaction between languages feels to have an impact on the displayed name. I can’t quite pinpoint when it exactly happens though.

[tiwane]

Have you changed your device’s language to see if that affects what’s shown in the app?

[tisli]

This is progress.

Device language changed to Dutch. Restarted the app (maybe too fast). No changes.

I logged out and back in, now all the names are Dutch or scientific names:

[tisli]

Device language definitely affects the displayed language sometimes:

I changed the device language to English again.
I closed the app for a minute.
I start the app.
And some names change back to English.

[tisli]

Okay, it gets… more elaborate. I just checked my account settings, and after logging out and in, the language settings apparently changed to “use device language”. It wasn’t on that before. I now changed it to Dutch, and again, all names are in Dutch again.

Current view:

Current settings:

/e/ I can’t reply because of the three post limit, but:

@tisli

Some interaction between languages feels to have an impact on the displayed name

@tiwane I figured a bit of the above out:
When a user identifies an observation of mine in e.g. English…

…and I follow that ID through ‘My Content’
the displayed name for the whole observation seems to have changed to the identifiers language.

Even though the displayed names in my observation overview are all still in the correct language…

…some observations now open as English, yet some remain in Dutch:

[optilete]

@tisli

The same happens for every Android version I have used using Dutch and many names appearing in English or scientific names first.

I cannot reproduce this, but I’ve the device language is not English.

Ground Yellowjackets
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/61356-Vespula#taxonomy-tab

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/49548-Agaricus%20Ground#taxonomy-tab

[tisli]

@tisli

Some interaction between languages feels to have an impact on the displayed name.

I described a suspected cause for a language change in an above post. But maybe the displayed names on the observation page changing to English is caused simply by going to the ‘Activity/My content’ page in the app.

[hamsambly]

I have some semi-related issues where certain species names only appear in Thai now when I only use the website in english. Oh well, it helps me learn the species names in Thai. I don’t know what triggered it but a few have swapped over.

[tiwane]

This bug report is for the Android app, not the iNat website. I suspect what you’re seeing is not related, but without specific examples it’s not really possible to tell.

[tisli]

I have since uploaded two new obervations and they are both in English. My phone language is on English, the iNaturalist app is on Dutch.

[olrett]

The issue is persisting. And is getting awfully annoying now.

My system language is English (all my IT devices/systems are in English).

iNat however was set to German because that’s the language that works for plants and birds for me. I just don’t know them in English.

Now however I have an app interface that remains in German (although English would be fine there), but crucially all observations are in English – might as well be in Greek or Chinese, as far as I am concerned! :-/

Also the Wikipedia links default to English now.

Would the powers responsible for screwing this up please unscrew this asap?

[pisum]

@tisli

I suspect there to be multiple causes of this

i noted a bunch of things back in the day that probably were only partially fixed. i haven’t checked lately to see which are still broken: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/cant-see-chinese-common-names-on-android/17573/17.

[optilete]

@olrett

Would the powers responsible for screwing this up please unscrew this asap?

There is a new version of the android app, but there are still issues with it.

[tiwane]

We’ll be testing a beta version with a fix this week.

[tiwane]

This should be fixed in the latest public release, 1.29.5 (579).