### Author:  [@pangbo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pangbo)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/1 "2025-11-03T14:45:32Z")
I’m attempting to modify certain strings on the user preferences page. I navigated to _Admin → Site Texts_ and searched for the relevant keys. However, I was unable to customize the specific text I was looking for as it told me there were no texts found.
I am reasonably certain that the key is valid, as it is defined here:
>
I then switched the target language to English but still yielded no results for `user.username.short_instructions`. Furthermore, I attempted to search for other strings such as `user.username.title`, `user.preferences.title`, and `filters.latest.title`, and no results either.
---
### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 3:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/2 "2025-11-03T15:03:16Z")
Very strange, I’m able to pull up the key
> [@pangbo](#):
>
> Furthermore, I attempted to search for other strings such as `user.username.title`, `user.preferences.title`, and `filters.latest.title`, and no results either.
If you right click and open the browser inspector, are there any errors in the console tab?
---
### Author:  [@pangbo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pangbo)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 3:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/3 "2025-11-03T15:41:45Z")
It looks like there are no related errors, and based on the request results, it may be a backend issue.
Although I don’t believe the plugins I’ve installed have modified this particular area, I will attempt to remove all unofficial plugins later to see if that resolves the problem.
---
### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 3:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/4 "2025-11-03T15:46:35Z")
> [@pangbo](#):
>
> I will attempt to remove all unofficial plugins later to see if that resolves the problem.
You can temporarily disable customizations by using [safe mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) and see if that works
---
### Author:  [@pangbo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pangbo)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/5 "2025-11-03T16:35:56Z")
I have some updates regarding this matter. I can now definitively confirm that the issue lies with the backend. While examining the code, I noticed a particular line:
>
To my surprise, executing `I18n.exists?("js.user.username.short_instructions", :en)` on my instance returns false.
I manually removed this line of code, and I am now able to search for `user.username.short_instructions`
I am uncertain as to why `I18n.exists?("js.user.username.short_instructions", :en)` is returning false. I may investigate further to determine whether the problem is specific to my instance or a more general issue with Discourse.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/6 "2025-11-06T00:50:06Z")
Feels like a general issue you your Discourse instance.
```plaintext
sam@arch discourse % bin/rails c
Loading development environment (Rails 8.0.4)
[1] pry(main)> I18n.exists?("js.user.username.short_instructions", :en)
=> true
```
Particularly something around build. During build we parse all of this stuff and pop it in tables, somehow this did not happen yet in your instance.
Would recommend a console rebuild.
---
### Author:  [@pangbo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pangbo)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 6:58am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/7 "2025-11-06T06:58:50Z")
@sam, thank you for your response. I’ve deployed three Discourse instances using different methods, and all exhibit the same issue, leading me to believe it’s not an installation problem.
Upon re-examining my plugins, I discovered that one of them created a locale file (`plugins/XXXX/config/locales/client.en.yml`) with the following content:
```yml
en:
js:
```
Deleting this file resolved the problem. After a brief investigation into the I18n implementation, I found that `deep_merge` is used to merge translations during loading:
```ruby
# File activesupport/lib/active_support/vendor/i18n-0.4.1/i18n/backend/simple.rb, line 31
31: def store_translations(locale, data, options = {})
32: locale = locale.to_sym
33: translations[locale] ||= {}
34: data = data.deep_symbolize_keys
35: translations[locale].deep_merge!(data)
36: end
```
The YAML above is parsed as:
```json
{"en": {"js": null}}
```
This results in the deletion of the entire content under the `en.js` key after the merge. As a plugin developer, I understand that this issue stems from my own coding error, and I am fully responsible for it. However, I believe Discourse could benefit from additional checks to warn against such occurrences, especially considering that Discourse already has a design for inspecting locale files, as seen [here](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/lib/i18n/locale_file_checker.rb).
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 7:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/8 "2025-11-06T07:38:32Z")
Glad you found it!
I will ping the dev xp team so they are aware
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/10 "2025-11-06T10:19:31Z")
Nice catch, thanks for updating us on the solution @pangbo.
> [@pangbo](#):
>
> Discourse already has a design for inspecting locale files, as seen [here](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/lib/i18n/locale_file_checker.rb)
We could definitely add a check here, although IIRC this checker is only used during RSpec tests. Would that have helped in your case?
Definitely open to having a runtime check for this `null` case, if we can find a good place to put it.
---
### Author:  [@pangbo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pangbo)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2025, 10:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/cannot-customize-some-site-texts/387463/11 "2025-11-06T10:57:01Z")
You are correct. I made an unwarranted assumption that these checks would execute at runtime. Upon searching the GitHub repository, it appears these checks are invoked solely within a rake task:
>
Adding checks here would not have preemptively identified the issue I encountered. Perhaps the most straightforward solution is to caution developers against this practice in the documentation 😇