I can’t reproduce this either, but it sounds like someone else is having the same problem: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Report_a_technical_problem#Can't_escape_English

@hubaishan Again: Please answer all questions in T368595#9929613. Thanks.

I run into the same issue today. Starting with English, I click language selector next to my username and select a different language, like Polish. The selector accepts the selection, page blinks and it is still in English mode.

• I had the same issue on Commons, Meta-Wiki and on Wikidata.
• I tested it on PC with Windows using Chrome and Edge and had the same issue. However when I tried Firefox, it worked.
• I tested it in an Apple ipad using Safari and also had this issue
• I could change the language in Preferences
• I could change from Polish to English, but not the other way

In T368595#9929613, @Aklapper wrote:

From which exact language to which exact language do you try to switch, on which exact page?

I just tried m:Main_Page switching from English to: Polish, Russian and German with no luck.

I looked closer at Firefox setting and on that one I used [[user:JarektBot]] account when it worked, while all other browsers used [[user:Jarekt]] account when it did not work. Switching users in Firefox to Jarekt account made it not work as well.

In T368595#9929613, @Aklapper wrote:

Please follow https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Locating_broken_scripts and check with safemode and share any errors in your browser's developer tools.

Following https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Locating_broken_scripts steps:

• ensure your browser is up to date: I have up to date chrome 126.0.6478.127
• I loaded https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?safemode=1 and still can not change the language
• Trying to switch the language at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?debug=true# with the Chrome developer tools open shows the following in the console

@Jarekt Is interface language in global preferences set? was it set when trying with Firefox?

The globalpreferenceoverrides API is not working although the response was {"globalpreferenceoverrides":"success"}

Likely to be caused by recent works on T323076, cc @tstarling

The ULS may also consider switching to a simple new mw.Api().saveOption( 'language', langCode, { global: 'override' } ) call.

In T368595#9937575, @hubaishan wrote:

@Jarekt Is interface language in global preferences set? was it set when trying with Firefox?

My [[user:Jarekt]] account has interface language in global preferences set to English. In that account I can not change the language from English. Tested in Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.
My [[user:JarektBot]] account does not have interface language set in global preferences. In that account I can change the languages. Tested in Firefox and Edge.

I'm seeing this problem:
Have global pref set to langauge:en

Go to any page
use the UI to change the language to anything that isn't en

The page reloads in en

Change #1051305 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/GlobalPreferences@master] api: Use GLOBAL_OVERRIDE instead of manual local override

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1051305

I had exactly the same issue here, both in Brave and Firefox.

I tried en-->pt o https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107550675 ; only got it working after fiddling around a bit with global preferences.