Arabic (Foreign) language/font on some Google/Chrome pages

Question

On some Google and Chrome pages, I see Arabic font language and letters:

My Chrome settings

This is a business account. Everything in else google apps like mail, calendar, drives is all in English.

Windows is showing English as the language as well. Where else might I need to go change the language settings. I think this is only happening on my computer at a client's site, not my personal laptop.

It's not limited to Google; occasionally I see it other strange places. But it seems to only apply to Chrome.

Example of a date/time on a blog (http://www.bizbert.com/bizbert/default.aspx).

Same blog looks okay in Microsoft Edge Browser.

Solution 1

Try :

• Use Chrome in incognito mode which disables extensions. If that fixes the problem, one of your extensions is the troublemaker.
• Reset Chrome settings to default.
• Try using a new user profile. If that works, then your Chrome profile is corrupted, and you need to continue to the next point.
• Export all bookmarks, list your extensions, then go to the folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data and rename the Default folder. This will make Chrome, when started, create a new default profile. Import the bookmarks and install the needed extensions and login where required.
  All your data will still exists in the renamed Default folder, but wholesale copying to the new folder might restore the problem. You may delete the renamed folder once the new default profile is fully functional.

Solution 2

Browsers collect cookies. Maybe someone has used chrome to visit or search in a foreign language (which in this case is Persian) or has signed in to his/her Google account where English is not the default language in his or hers setting. Clearing your cookies may help.

Also it you've visited a foreign country, your location may be saved in Chrome. Clear your location history as well if the former didn't help.

As a last shot, you can always reset all settings to the default which means clearing all your history, cookies, bookmarks etc., and be sure you will get a fresh English version of the Chrome. By signing in again, you can recover all your bookmarks, passwords, ... but maybe, also the setting (if your language is now set to English, it's most likely that you won't see anything but English after that.)

Comments

[harrymc]

Try using Chrome in incognito mode which disables extensions. If that fixes the problem, one of your extensions is the troublemaker. Otherwise, Reset Chrome settings to default. If that fails, try using a new user profile.

[NealWalters]

Incognito didn't work, but new profile did.

[NealWalters]

First two didn't help. I created a user profile called "tester", and I see English there. Do how do I change the settings on my profile, which is tied to my Google email account?

[NealWalters]

See other answer; I did advanced reset which deleted cookies; and it did not solve problem. A new user profile did. But I want to use my profile tied to my google account.

[arash]

@NealWalters log in to your own google account in Chrome and simply visit google.com. Is it in English?

[harrymc]

Your Chrome profile is corrupted and this is usually hard to fix. You had better export all bookmarks, list your extensions, then go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data and rename the Default folder. This will make Chrome, when started, create a new default profile. Chrome Sync might help to ease the problem (or might return the problem), but you can try it in the hope to salvage everything. If it doesn't help, you will need to renew the default profile and import manually the bookmarks and install the extensions and login where required.

[harrymc]

All your data will still exists in the renamed Default folder, but wholesale copying to the new folder might also transfer the problem. You may delete the old folder once your new one is fully functional.

[NealWalters]

Yes, it shows English. I'm in Gmail and Google Calendar all day long. I still can't figure out if this is a browser setting, or a google server side setting that needs to be changed. Seems to be unique to my computer at work though; so must be local.

[NealWalters]

I will try that when I get some time.

[NealWalters]

WooHoo - that worked! Very extreme. I exported my bookmarks for work to html, then reimported them after. Just had to re-install Roboform and enable it. Might have lost some other minor extensions, but I can reinstall them when needed. if you want to make this part of your official answer I will check it as answer.

[harrymc]

Done as requested.