Apple Music language switched to Chinese?

[WilsonNM]

I feel dumb that I can't figure this out, but I can't figure it out.

The language in the Apple Music app on my Mac has been switched to Chinese and I don't know how to get it back to English.

This is not a change I deliberately made. Presumably it happened some time while I was traveling in China last month. But I've been back in the U.S. for two weeks now and it hasn't switched back. I even made a purchase in the iTunes Store a few days ago and just got the email receipt today, and the receipt was in Chinese.

Can anyone help me?

 

[CharlesShaw]

Until someone with experience answers, I see that in Settings, General, Language & Region, there is an option at the bottom to add customized language settings for individual applications. If Music is listed there, that might be the reason.

 

[WilsonNM]

Unfortunately that doesn't work because the actual language of the app seems to still be English, it's the web content (Apple Music and the iTunes Store) that is in Chinese. Using those settings, I was actually able to change the app UI language to Spanish, but the web content remained in Chinese.

Though the Account Settings accessible from the bottom left corner seem to be in Chinese as well:

This is a strange problem

 

[Nermal]

I'm not familiar with Apple Music itself, but if it works like iTunes did then it seems like you have the app in English but you're in the China "store" (or whatever the Music equivalent is). Can you see a Chinese flag or "中国" text anywhere (bottom corner, perhaps)? If so, click it and see whether you can change it back to the US.

 

[WilsonNM]

^I actually checked in the bottom right corner and it said 美国 (Měiguó), a.k.a. the Chinese name for America

So I signed out of Apple Music and signed back in--still in Chinese. Then I clicked on my account information again (what I screenshotted above), I got a "Something went wrong" message, I force quit the Music app, restarted it, and now it's in English.

So...problem solved? Not sure exactly what happened there, but it appears signing out and signing back in did reset it somehow. I probably should've tried that first.

 

[radow]

This happened to me as well - App Store update lists are strangely in Chinese despite device region and App Store region/language are not. I'm now fairly certain that it's an yet undocumented countryd behavior.

 

[Nermal]

"and answers about which country nearby devices believe they are in" - this seems a bit concerning. Once upon a time when I was using Google Maps (on Android, I think) it suddenly switched into Japanese for a block or two, then back to English. I can only assume that someone's Wi-Fi AP was set to Japan.

 

[TheLloydME]

I have encountered exactly the same issue. 😅 I am an Apple user living in China with a U.S. Apple Account, and all of my Apple devices are set to English (United States). This issue first appeared on my Mac in August 2025, and it cannot be resolved by erasing the Mac or reinstalling macOS. Signing out of and back into my Apple Account in the Music app, slightly adjusting the language settings in the Settings app, or reauthorizing the Mac only provide temporary fixes for this issue.

 

[adrianlondon]

Though the Account Settings accessible from the bottom left corner seem to be in Chinese as well:

Did you subscribe to Apple Music while in China?

The bottom option on your pop-up is Account Settings. Click on that and then underneath your cc details and address should be the country info. If it says China (as posted above, that's 中国) then change it.

 

[TheLloydME]

Did you subscribe to Apple Music while in China?

The bottom option on your pop-up is Account Settings. Click on that and then underneath your cc details and address should be the country info. If it says China (as posted above, that's 中国) then change it.

There is no iTunes Store in mainland China. The screenshot above is from the iTunes Store, which also indicates that the account’s region settings are not incorrect. In addition, the U.S. App Store / iTunes Store appears to support multiple languages (as far as I recall, including English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.), so the interface being displayed in Chinese does not mean the account is set to the China region.