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@kentbrew
Last active March 6, 2025 00:34
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How to change the Chrome default language on OSX

How to Change your Chrome Default Language

Open up a Terminal window. (If you have never seen Terminal before, go to Spotlight Search and type "Terminal.")

In the Terminal box, try this:

defaults read com.google.Chrome AppleLanguages

If you see this:

The domain/default pair of (com.google.Chrome, AppleLanguages) does not exist

... don't panic. It just means that nobody else has used this method before. To change your language, do this:

defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleLanguages '(pt-BR)'

Capitalization of the language code you enter is unimportant; your system will normalize it to lower-lower-UPPER-UPPER.

Here I've chosen Portuguese as it is spoken in Brazil. Feel free to enter the IETF language code of your choice; some of my personal favorites are en-UK, fr-CA, and es-MX. For a complete list, see the Wikipedia entry.

Restart Chrome.

If Chrome knows the language you entered, the top menu will immediately switch; mine says Arquivo, Editar, and Visualizar when I switch to pt-BR.

To switch back, run the same Terminal command with your preferred language. And if you're ever confused about what language has been selected, do this:

defaults read com.google.Chrome AppleLanguages

... or use a Web inspector to enter console mode on any page and type this:

window.navigator.language

@achraf-jeday
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Thanks this is helpful.

@PietroCoppola
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Thanks man, super helpful.

Tenho que dizer que um BR é a ultima nacionalidade que achei que ia responder isso

@avalanche1
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avalanche1 commented Mar 8, 2021

Doesn't seem to work for chrome 89. Crashes on open.

@kentbrew
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It's working for me right now on Chrome 90.0.4430.85, no crash. Sorry about that!

@wolfey
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wolfey commented Aug 3, 2021

To remove the setting, execute:

defaults delete com.google.Chrome AppleLanguages

@kloparov
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God bless you man!

@unsalkorkmaz
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@pohy
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pohy commented Dec 2, 2022

Dammit, you are the best!

@tiancihe
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it works, thanks a lot

@a90120411
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Thanks !

@user20161119
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Thanks,It's work

@haspadarZ-padMensku
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best

@k-yle
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k-yle commented Mar 6, 2025

This also works for edge by using com.microsoft.edgemac or com.microsoft.edgemac.Beta instead of com.google.Chrome

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