Change default language sharepoint

Question

Hello,

I'd like to change the default language of my sharePoint site from English to French to make it easier to translate the pages.

Could you please guide me on how to do this?

Answer 1

Hi MPOU EKOUYA Syntyche AssuResDsiSiiSmi, 

Thank you for your question! We understand your need to make page translation easier by setting French as the default language.  However, by design, SharePoint Online does not allow changing the default language of a site collection after it has been created.  

This is confirmed in Microsoft’s official documentation: Can't change the default language for a site - SharePoint | Microsoft Learn 

Here are some alternatives you might consider: 

1. Create a New SharePoint Site 

Since the default language of a SharePoint site cannot be changed after creation, one effective workaround is to create a new site with French as the default language. 

Steps: 

• Go to the SharePoint Admin Center.
• Navigate to Site Collections > New.
• When creating the site, choose Language: French.

For move data to the new SharePoint site (collection), we can save site/library as templates and create a new site/library with the templates:  Create and use site templates in SharePoint Server versions 

2. Enable MUI (Multilingual User Interface) 

• Go to your SharePoint site.
• Click the Settings (⚙️ gear icon)> Site Information > View all site settings.
• Under Site Administration, select Language Settings.
• In theAlternate Language(s) section, check French.
• (Optional) Check Overwrite Translations if you want to override default UI text with translated versions.
• Click OKto save.

For detailed guidance, refer to Microsoft’s official documentation:   Choose the languages for a SharePoint site user interface 

User Language Preference: 

After MUI is enabled, users can go to: 

• My Account → Language and Region → Select French as their preferred language.
• Once set, the SharePoint site interface will display in French for that user—without changing the site's default language.

We hope this workaround helps meet your needs. Thank you for your understanding, and please feel free to reach out if you need help enabling multilingual features or translating content. If the information above is helpful, kindly mark it as an answer. This will also assist others in the community who may have similar questions complexity.  

Warm regards,  

Rin-L MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

Answer 2

Thank you for your feedback.

Does this mean that the translation of a sharepoint page can be done automatically in several languages once the correct default language has been modified?

Answer 3

Hi MPOU EKOUYA Syntyche AssuResDsiSiiSmi, 

Thank you for your follow-up question. I appreciate your interest in understanding how SharePoint handles multilingual content and your engagement with the previous guidance. 

While SharePoint allows you to enable multilingual features to create and manage content in different languages, it does not support automatic full-page translation simply by changing the default language. Instead, SharePoint uses a multilingual publishing feature, which lets you manually create and manage translated versions of each page. 

To allow pages and news posts to be translated into multiple languages: 

• Go to your SharePoint site.
• Click the Settings (⚙️ gear icon) → Site Information → View all site settings.
• Under Site Administration, select Language Settings.

 

• Enable the toggle: “Enable pages and news to be translated into multiple languages”.
• Select the languages you want to support (e.g., French, Spanish, etc.).
• Assign translators for each language if needed.

 

• Click Save.

Note: SharePoint does not automatically translate content. You need to manually create or edit each translated version. 

For detailed guidance, refer to Microsoft’s official documentation: Create multilingual SharePoint sites, pages, and news - Microsoft Support 

If you're looking for automatic translation options, you can consider the following: 

• Use Microsoft Translator or Power Automate to assist with translation workflows. These tools can help streamline the process of translating content across multiple languages.
• Embed translation widgets or use third-party tools that support automatic translation features.

Thank you again for your question—I hope this information is helpful! Please feel free to reach out if you need further assistance. 

Warm regards,   

Rin-L MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

Answer 4

Hi MPOU EKOUYA Syntyche AssuResDsiSiiSmi, 

May I know if your problem has been solved or not? I am happy to help you if you have any further questions. 

If my answer is helpful, mark it as an answer, which will definitely help others in the community who have similar questions find solutions to their problems faster.