Title: localization problem with .mo file.
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# localization problem with .mo file.

 *  Resolved [Peter_L](https://wordpress.org/support/users/peter_l/)
 * (@peter_l)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/)
 * Hello,
 * I’m having a problem with localization.
 * A website of mine is available in 4 languages: nl (default), fr, en and es. Everything
   works fine except for the localization in English. It’s doesn’t translate the
   localized string in English (en_US.mo) but instead uses the default Dutch. The
   other languages’ .mo files work just fine.
 * To create the theme’s .po and .mo files I used Codestyling Localization plugin.
   I pulled the en_US.mo file from the server and tried it on another server and
   it worked just fine. Same for the entire theme. So, I’m thinking the problem 
   must be elsewhere.
 * Other things I tried are: deleting and recreating the english .po and .mo files,
   removing the Codestyling Localization plugin and the theme language folder, reinstalling
   the plugin and recreating.
 * I’m at a loss. Currently, I’m thinking a the client might have done something
   wrong while creating the language (through polylang) and that is causing the 
   problem. How could I verify this?
 * Do you have any other ideas what might be causing this?
 * [http://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/)

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/)
 * (@chouby)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423285)
 * Why do you need an en_US.mo file?
 *  Thread Starter [Peter_L](https://wordpress.org/support/users/peter_l/)
 * (@peter_l)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423304)
 * Because my theme template files contain some text strings that need translation
   and the default language is Dutch, not English.
    `__('Dutch text', 'theme name')`
 *  Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/)
 * (@chouby)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423324)
 * That’s probably the source of your issue. By default, WordPress supposes that
   everything is written in ‘en_US’ and it loads translations for other languages.
 * In Polylang languages, could you try to change the English locale to ‘en_GB’ 
   instead of ‘en_US’ and rename your theme localization file from ‘en_US.mo’ to‘
   en_GB.mo’?
 *  Thread Starter [Peter_L](https://wordpress.org/support/users/peter_l/)
 * (@peter_l)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423329)
 * Yes, this solved it.
 * In polylang, I changed locale to en_GB.
 * Then I deleted the en_US.mo from my theme language folder and renamed the en_US.
   po to en_GB.po. Then I opened my codestyling localization plugin and created 
   the en_GB.mo file. (little detour to keep edibility in the codestyling plugin
   on the english theme language file).
 * Thank you very much! Really appreciate your help.
 * As for,
 * > That’s probably the source of your issue. By default, WordPress supposes that
   > everything is written in ‘en_US’ and it loads translations for other languages.
 * I’m not sure because I usually use a Dutch install of WordPress, so that should’ve
   had the default on nl_NL.
    [http://nl.wordpress.org/](http://nl.wordpress.org/)
   But I could’ve ‘accidently’ used the US version as well. Can’t remember.
 *  Plugin Author [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/)
 * (@chouby)
 * [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423337)
 * You are right. I checked and Polylang assumes in one place that the default locale
   is en_US. That’s may be the source of your issue. I made that to save some time
   but I may have to reconsider this.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘localization problem with .mo file.’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/polylang/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3433336)
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## Tags

 * [.mo](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/mo/)
 * [po](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/po/)

 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Chouby](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chouby/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localization-problem-with-mo-file/#post-4423337)
 * Status: resolved