[Kibosh]

Hey all,

I'm a Dutch speaking Belgium guy owning a nice HTC Mozart and I'm happy with it. Only there is one major thing wrong with it and that is that the marketplace displays French. There are some more smaller things, but this language issue is for me very annoying.

Because not many people know Belgium (I guess), there are three official languages. Dutch (Me), French and a small part German. For some reason, Microsoft desided to offer the marketplace only in French for Belgium. I can assure you that they made a big mistake. We, the Flemish, speak better English then French. Also there are 6,200,000 Flemish and 3,500,000 French. You can do the math. Consider also the fact that Belgium is going through a political crisis about French vs Flemish and you can see the size of the error...

Now this is not just a Dutch/French issue. Belgium isn't the only country where there are more then one official languages, and off course, in each country there are also people living in it from another country that have a local cellphone. Could be kind off expensive for an American living in Europe using an American cellphone...

Then there is also this. Probably because of this language thing, I can't post reviews. Maybe I can, but all the reviews and ratings I did, I can't see them in the Marketplace. You can check it yourself. I've wrote a review for the game "Rise Of Glory" and the app "deredactie.be". When I go back in WP7, where you can edit the review, it is showing, but it isn't in the Marketplace. Also I see only with few apps some reviews. I'm sure I'm missing out of a lot more. For example, I see only one rating for the game "Need For Speed". No, I'm sure more people have given this game a rating being on the top of the charts...

And it doesn't end there. I tried "Need For Speed". That game installed in, yep, French. I didn't find where to change it in game, so I immediately uninstalled it. Luckely you can choose the language in most apps.

Why I'm posting this here? Even when I know there isn't a sollution at this time? Well, I'm hoping to give this issue more attention so we can see a fix to it more quickly. Because I'm sure I'm not the only one, Microsoft is missing out pottential customers. As we all know, apps are important, so it is easy to see that a correct language for a marketplace is also important. I'm not asking for a Dutch language, I'm asking for the ability to choose between a language no matter in which country you live. If you're an American living in France then you should be able to choose English. There is already a setting in WP7 for the display language. Why don't they use this one?

This issue is also already posted a few times to Microsoft answers and also that about not seeing the reviews. But no answer from MS yet. So WPCentral, pls pls pls... I'm sure many people would like to see when this will be fixed or at least get feedback.

So if you also are affected by this, pls post... Or if you have more info, pls share...


Link 1 to MS answers: French language Marketplace App and Market Descriptions on English - Microsoft Answers

Link 2 to MS answers: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...6-54839cb43598

And there are more links. Apparently this also existed in WM6.5...

PS: I don't want to create another account for solving this. It should work with my normal account.
Also: NoDo Update didn't fixed it.

[Rich Edmonds]

Is this any help, sir?

Hello Jingobaba,

It seems as your Zunetag was set up for Switzerland (when you had to choose the country you are, on the first time you turned on your phone) and the option to change your Zunetag’s country is currently not available.

The currently solution for your issue, were to create a new Windows Live ID and then also a new Zunetag, by going in thehttp://www.zune.net/ page, logging in and choosing the country you want to be supported.

For changing the main Windows Live ID on the phone, a phone reset is needed, so please make a backup before resetting and notice that it isn’t possible to transfer the applications you have purchased to the new Windows Live ID, and notice also, that you need a valid UK Credit Card (in your case) and valid billing address to have access to the marketplace and its content.
Thank you for posting.

Change language for windows Phone 7 Marketplace - Microsoft Answers

[Kibosh]

Hey Richard,

Thanx for the reply but I also know about the work-around. The trouble with that is, if I'm correct, that you might not be able to buy apps because of your credit card data. A friend of my had his account first on US, but he couldn't buy apps. He created a new one with the correct settings for Belgium and now he can buy apps, but yep, Marketplace is in French.

Because I also think this is something that affects a lot off people, it should be fixed. I don't see how this could be so hard to do. Then I'm also wondering now, what language our fellow Dutch people get at the Netherlands? Probably English.

The thing for the moment is, that I can't realy find anywhere that MS is working at a solution and when we might see it. Even if they are aware of this..

[Rich Edmonds]

Hey Richard,

Thanx for the reply but I also know about the work-around. The trouble with that is, if I'm correct, that you might not be able to buy apps because of your credit card data. A friend of my had his account first on US, but he couldn't buy apps. He created a new one with the correct settings for Belgium and now he can buy apps, but yep, Marketplace is in French.

Because I also think this is something that affects a lot off people, it should be fixed. I don't see how this could be so hard to do. Then I'm also wondering now, what language our fellow Dutch people get at the Netherlands? Probably English.

The thing for the moment is, that I can't realy find anywhere that MS is working at a solution and when we might see it. Even if they are aware of this..

Hmm, I see. Well the best we can do is write up an article now on the main site and build awareness ;) Have you contacted Windows Phone support on Twitter?

[Kibosh]

You will laugh: I'm not on Twitter, neither on Facebook...

There are posts on answers.microsoft.

[Rich Edmonds]

You will laugh: I'm not on Twitter, neither on Facebook...

Not at all, not everyone wants to be socially integrated :biggrin:

I'll write up the article and contact them on your behalf :)

[Kibosh]

Wow, Great !!!! Thanx many times

[Rich Edmonds]

No problem, I will send you a personal message here (you should receive an email alert as to when you receive my message) with any reply I receive from them - might take up to a day.

[Kibosh]

Just got a reply from HTC Support here in Belgium. The guy would pass it true to a higher level. Probably that higher level will then say: we will look into it...

I just hope somewhere, somehow, there is an aknowledgement that they are actually working on it... <- That's what I want to hear and maybe a timeframe too.

[Kibosh]

Follow Up: Just received another mail from HTC saying

At this time, this function is not yet available on your device. I will pass it through to the correct department.
There is then a good possibility that this feature will be added in the future for your device.

What to think about this? I don't know. Yes, I hope that in the future my 500€ device displays the marketplace in the correct language. Probably when MS adds Dutch whenever this will be it will automatically change.

But, I asked for the ability to choose your language. Dutch will be fine for me, but not for many others. It's probably this that HTC meant with "this function".

We have to stay honest. It isn't the fault off HTC. It is MS that needs to make it. It's a shame I didn't get a contact for MS, but if HTC does what is says it will do, adress it to the correct department and it ends up with MS to give them another push, it's ok for me. But there is that "if" word again.

I'm afraid that this function isn't really something easy to add. The more I search around it, I see that all those accounts are connected somehow. Zune, X-Box, Phone 7 Marketplace. All this things use the region settings. Adding an option to choose the language might not be so easy. I think this is something like: Oeps, Yep, didn't think about that when we started...

When I get or find more info, I'll share it here...

[vdjan]

I'm afraid that this will never be solved, have complained about this already years ago.
The only solution MS support provided, was to recreate a Live account, which I will NOT as I will loose everything that's connected to the current account.


But you never know, maybe someday they will be so polite and make this little modification in there database... but I guess not.

[German1513]

I have same problem, I actually posted this on microsoft Answers and Jessica (who is part of dev team in WP7) answered that they are "working" on it, but this does not seem to be fixed it sooner. :(

[Kibosh]

If they are "actually" working on it, then it is something.

Found anothner thread about it: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...3086078#footer

[Bosse76]

Are they still working at it? I just bought a Nokia Lumia 800 with WP7 on it, and it still is a problem. First it was in Dutch, but after I created a live account, most of the things in the MarketPlace changed into French.

[Bosse76]

After some searching I found the following : Microsoft ID en de Store : switchen van Marketplace > WP7.nl (It is in Dutch)

Basicly it sends you to this URL http://support.xbox.com where you can login with an XBox live account. There I selected XBox Live - Account and Marketplace and started chatting with a Microsoft Support guy (who redirected me to the right person) He reseted some of my account settings. After inserting them again (Name, Adress, ... but also Language) my Marketplace became Dutch, home sweet home :-)

[Subserved_Meteor]

Hmm...I have a similar problem....
I live in Switzerland (german speaking part) and have my live ID set to switzerland...everything was fine, and marketplace language was in German. After updating to WP7.8 my marketplace suddenly changed the language to Italian...what the ****?
Any one else have this problem?

[calvinAttax]

Same problem here... Everything was fine (i guess Profile for Switzerland/German), but since update to 7.8, marketplace is suddenly in Italian. WTF!?!. @ Subserved_Meteor: Did you find a solution to this?

[Subserved_Meteor]

No, not yet. I tried a english (UK/US) but no difference. I guess this is a problem with the live ID. No answer from microsoft or windows phone on twitter :/

[Subserved_Meteor]

OK, I got to chat with windows phone support the other day, I learned that this must be a problem with the forced update. I took screenshots of the conversation I had and shout hear back from Microsoft sometime this week. WP_Support1.jpg

[Subserved_Meteor]

and here is the second part: WP_Support2.jpg

[calvinAttax]

@Subserved_Meteor: Any feedback from MS yet?

BTW: I didn't force the update, so it seems to be a problem in general...

[Subserved_Meteor]

According to MS the problem was that my Marketplace wasn't quite ready yet for the update, although what they did not understand is that I was trying to explain there is nothing wrong with having the marketplace in Italian, as it is one of the 4 languages spoken in Switzerland, just that my language is German.

this is what I got from them:

"Hello Aldo, I can understand the frustration in waiting for an update, however "forcing" an update is not something we can support as it can cause innumerous errors.
What I would suggest is seeing if you can rollback to your previous update using a backup in the Zune software or trying a hard reset on the phone.
If you have any questions, please reply to this email and we can continue to help.
Regards,
Tom R.
Microsoft Support"

I have already tipped WPcentral to cover this, but no love so far from them.

maybe you can contact support as well and let me know what they suggested?

[Squadromeo]

@Kibosh

OK, I'm in a more or less similar situation as you are. I am Dutch, have a Dutch sim card in my Dutch 920 but live in Portugal. Due to the fact that I bought my first Windows Phone when The Netherlands were not yet on the official list, I have an UK Microsoft account.
Just as a side note; I have my Dutch credit card registered on this UK account and it works flawlessly. Just fill in a valid UK address when you register the card and all is well.

Due to your remarks concerning the WP store I have been playing around a bit with the Location & Language settings of my phone. Eventually I was able to see your reviews! That is, I saw reviews written by ThaKibosh, which I assume is your good self. To make this happen I had to set the Location & Language settings as: Phone Language-Dutch, Country/Region-Belgium, Regional settings-Belgium(Dutch), Browser language-Dutch(Belgium). Obviously this whole list was in Dutch but since this is an English forum I translated it to English. With these settings the Store is also in Dutch. When I leave Country/Region set to UK ('cause I have a UK MS account), the store navigation is also in Dutch but the reviews and Apps are in English.

You also mentioned that Need for Speed installs in French, so I gave that a try as well and downloaded Need for Speed hot Pursuit. The game installs nicely and is all in English.

I would say, give these settings a try. If they don't work as described above you could try to get yourself a UK account, just to see if it works as it does on my phone.

[Subserved_Meteor]

@calvinAttax so I don't know exactly what happened, as I didn't get any new update, or downgrade to 7.5 again, but appears that my marketplace is in the right language again.

[martin_strahilovski]

@calvinAttax so I don't know exactly what happened, as I didn't get any new update, or downgrade to 7.5 again, but appears that my marketplace is in the right language again.

Probably it was some kind of server glitch with MS servers :)