# Change the interface language for many users via a database query?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [December 18, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635 "2025-12-18T07:42:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/1 "2025-12-18T07:42:12Z")
I’m wondering if someone could help me with a support request please.
I need to update the preferences of all our users who currently have an interface language of `English (US)` and change them over to use `English (UK)` instead.
Is there a [data explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query I can craft to issue some kind of SQL UPDATE query with a where clause on it to catch only the English (US) ones?
For reference / insight… we’ve recently spent a lot of time updating all our `Site texts` on the English (UK) language and during testing we’ve found that anyone who signed up to our platform more than a year ago was defaulting to the old default site setting of English (US), rather than English (UK), approx 15k users need updating.
---
### Author:  [@jahan\_gagan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jahan_gagan)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/2 "2025-12-18T08:54:42Z")
You can’t run `UPDATE` queries via the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin because it is strictly read-only.
For bulk updates like this, use the Rails console instead:
```plaintext
User.where(locale: 'en').update_all(locale: 'en_GB')
```
For more examples of updating user preferences in bulk, refer to:
> [@Edit a user preference for everyone or a subset of users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/edit-a-user-preference-for-everyone-or-a-subset-of-users/25162):
>
> bookmark This guide explains how to edit a user preference for everyone or a subset of users in Discourse. person_raising_hand Required user level: System Administrator warning Console access is required. If you need to update the user preference for all of your users or a large subset of users, you can do so via the rails console. Summary In this guide, you’ll learn: How to access the Rails console for making bulk changes Examples of modifying user preferences How to identify se…
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/3 "2025-12-18T08:54:45Z")
If I run this in [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true):
```plaintext
SELECT
u.locale,
COUNT(*) AS user_count
FROM users u
WHERE u.active = TRUE
AND u.locale IN ('en', 'en_GB')
GROUP BY u.locale
ORDER BY user_count DESC, u.locale
```
I get:
| locale | user\_count |
| --- | --- |
| en\_GB | 19479 |
| en | 16014 |
I need to UPDATE the 16,014 `en` users to be `en_GB`.
And I’m not brave enough to run an update query on prod 😊
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 8:55am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/4 "2025-12-18T08:55:25Z")
> [@jahan\_gagan](#):
>
> You can’t run `UPDATE` queries via the [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) plugin because it is strictly read-only.
Phew 😅
> [@jahan\_gagan](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> User.where(locale: 'en').update_all(locale: 'en_GB')
>
> ```
Fantastic, thank you! 🙇
---
### Author:  [@Richie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Richie)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 9:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/5 "2025-12-18T09:04:38Z")
Thanks @jahan_gagan
I took a DB backup first 😅
I then ran this:
> [@jahan\_gagan](#):
>
> ```plaintext
> User.where(locale: 'en').update_all(locale: 'en_GB')
>
> ```
It worked perfectly:
```plaintext
Loading production environment (Rails 8.0.4)
discourse(prod)> User.where(locale: 'en').update_all(locale: 'en_GB')
=> 16016
```
And my [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) query now responds with:
| locale | user\_count |
| --- | --- |
| en\_GB | 35493 |
Thank you 👏
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2026, 9:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-interface-language-for-many-users-via-a-database-query/391635/6 "2026-01-17T09:04:40Z")
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