change language in mac app store

Hi everyone,

I'm just one of those poor expats that relocate every now and then to different locations in the world and can not use Apple's product to its best.

Just to recap:

• Device country = Itunes default store language
• Itunes default store language does NOT = Apple ID language
• Apple ID language = Billing address
• Billing address HAS to match Credit Card issuance country

I have an address in NYC, Garden City - but no credit card. This just does not make any sense.

To answer DAV.EED: Hi David, thousands of online shops allow you to get content in your language (if you consider that product label/description are in your language) and deliver them to an address that does not match your credit card's country... starting with Amazon.

I also believe, that Apple is financially big enough to support this kind of enhancements on top of the commercial opportunity that they are missing - I use Netflix instead.

I own every possible Apple devices (Apple TV, iPad, iPhone, Extreme, iMac...) bought in US/France/Hungary, Hong Kong and Thailand with French, Thai and Hungarian credit cards.

The situation is that i have my movies in Hungarian and the ads are played in Thai, this means i can't watch any movies, read eBooks and my default music selection is the top 50 Hungarian songs - Yes that's absolutely insane when you are English speaker and when you defaulted every configuration settings to English.

It is very disappointing to see how Apple in general just ignores this problem and English speaking expats and also how Itunes (desktop Software) is so ridiculously bad at performing the most random function, e.g.: importing music from older device, how it takes hours to classify and provide meta data to your music collection and still not even being able to play a full album in the right order...

I love Apple products and philosophy but please, make an effort on iTunes and its content management.

Kind Regards,

Charles

Hi ...

You can change the country by clicking the round flag icon bottom right corner of the App Store window.

For purchasing your credit or debit card credentials must be associated with the same country where you reside.

"Although you can browse the iTunes Store in any country without being signed in, you can only purchase content from the iTunes Store for your own country. This is enforced via the billing address associated with your credit card or other payment method that you use with the iTunes Store, rather than your actual geographic location."

From here > The Complete Guide to Using the iTunes Store | iLounge Article

FYI: iTunes and Mac App Stores bililing policies are the same.

Hi J,

I have just submitted the following bug report to Apple's ipad feedback.

please do the same, maybe they'll wake up.

BUG REPORT - appstore, ibooks, ItunesU, newsstand.

Can't choose the language in any of those, not in my account or anywhere. Ipad is bought in Britain, but the appstore is WRONG. Can't leave comments in the right language either, all I get is nagging Frenchman who want their apps in French. Well I want my apps in English and I paid for an English version.

So what do I do? No answer in the forums.

Thanks in advance for a QUICK resolution, this is extremely frustrating.

I had this problem as I live in Spain and after racking my brains for a while, I suddenly realised that my son has an English account with the App Store, I simply logged into his account, put in my number and hey presto! download was all good. If you know someone with an English account then do what I did. It isn't ideal but it's a way around the problem. Apple really need to sort this out, there are a lot of English speaking people living in non English speaking countries and only being able to access the store appertaining to that particular country is just nuts, an option should be given. I buy stuff online all the time and have never come across this problem of being outside the UK before. Come on Apple - get with the programme this is 2012!

The Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico my first language is Spanish. I do not speak English, however I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture perhaps very very different from your own. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.

The issue with this solution is that your apps are not yours, they are your son's apps, registered to his Apple ID and requiring his ID to update them forever. Should he change his password in the future and not inform you about it, you will be locked out of the apps at some point.

The issue here is that the MAS on your Mac is an app that provides a graphic user interface to use the actual Mac App Store's website which uses technology that is not on your Mac and is not controlled by your Mac. It would take a lot of resources to offer every country's MAS in language on demand. Apple has chosen not to invest in creating those resources and the manpower to create them, which is its option. Contrary to opinion expressed here, Apple did not sell you a Mac App Store, Apple sold you a device on which you can control the device's language. The iTunes and MAS appear in the language of the country whose store it is for, or sometimes in English. Not every country's store is in the local language, sometimes it is only in English.

Also, not every app sold in one store is available to buy in another country's store. Apple can only sell the apps in the country that the developer chooses to sell in. That is not up to Apple, that is the developer's decision, it is the developer's app.

This machine isn't mine at all, it belongs to my son whose app store account we accessed - he's a 3rd year student and he's here with us (and his machine) for the summer until he returns to Uni in mid-September.

The reason i posted was because he has a job for the summer here and i've been using his Mac - this is why I was panicking about downloading his upgrade in Spanish, perhaps i didn't word the reply very well. i was merely trying to help.

Anyway all good and I do have my own app store account here in Spain - good job i'm okay with the language don't you think?

However, i don't agree with you about the app store avialability, customers should be able to choose their own language.

But we'll have to agree to disagree, but when i buy my own Mac later this year, i'll make sure that my account and billing address is in England.

customers should be able to choose their own language.

How many online stores for major corporations, with virtually world-wide sales of their products, can you point me to which provide that experience?

Hi,

In my case I had everything in English except the APP STORE on my iPhone 4, I trid to change languages and everything and since my credit card is linked to a non English speaking country all the time I got the card default language, but not English and only in the AppStore

What I did is go I the AppStore on the iPhone and go down to the 'featured' menu and went to the bottom and chosed the apple I'd option to pretend to change the region, once I did a lot of disclaimers started to appear and after clicking 2 or 3 I just canceled the modification of the apple I'd credentials, pressed the home button and went back again to the AppStore and ... It was in English ;)

I think you need to make sure all the language config in your device should be in English as 1st language and yours, in case is not English, as 2nd

I hope it helps

coney,

yo can try to do it as I did, maybe change the iTunes language to english as well as your Mac language config, i'm not sure about that but you can try, or, you can also do it as I did and try to change your credentials, just try, don't change anything, click cancel and then when yoiu restart iTunes the Appstore is in english

if you prefer to have an answer in spanish I think we can manage that 😉

chau

Hi Chau,

That would make all purchases done with that ID "invisible", I could not update my purchases or install them. I had to change back to (in my case) "Chinese" (really frustrating... since my App Store was in ENGLISH before !! And now it is just in Chinese, but using a Chinese Apple ID all the time... Credit card/residence in China).

So I know it is possible to shop in an English interface of the App Store but having an Apple ID in another region... I want to change back, too... Any others have any other idea?

i did it before updating to iOS6, i hope it works now

on the app store on the ipod/iphone go to featured, the first option of the bottom left, go to the bottom and you'll see your apple id, click on it and sign out, sign in again and its done, it worked for me with iOS5

let me know if it worked, i think i posted before the solution but im not sure

hi coney

sadly i have no macbook available at this time but you can try the same procedure as i did with the iphone, try to uninstall everything itunes related and, also, change the default language of the laptop to english, then re install itunes in english as default language and re enter your credentials

i'll try to get ahold of c macbook and try to change the appstore language and let you know