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Published Sep. 10, 2025

Using the default locale property/environment variable won't change the language

Written By

Gergely Szalay

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Issue

Setting the default language in the portal-ext.properties, with the property

company.default.locale=nl_NL

or as an environment variable

LIFERAY_COMPANY_PERIOD_DEFAULT_PERIOD_LOCALE=nl_NL

 doesn't change the language even after restarting the bundle and deleting the cache.

Environment

Liferay DXP 7.0+

Resolution

The property is only intended for use on the initial startup using a clean database in case of a local Liferay DXP instance. That's because the property will write the settings to the database, and after the first start, you can only change it in the Control Panel > Instance Settings > Localization.

In case of docker images, as they were already started once for testing purposes, either you use the property, or the environment variable, it has already written the setting to the database, therefore it will only work if your bundle is connected to a new external database.

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