1975878 - In the settings, the menu to translate the site on load is set to appear, but the menu is not displayed

Status: ASSIGNED

(Firefox for Android :: Translations, defect)

Description

[eclaudiu64]

Attachment: mobizen_20250706_220459.mp4

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Android 10; Mobile; rv:142.0) Gecko/142.0 Firefox/142.0

Steps to reproduce:

The translation menu does not automatically appear on the site for translation, even if the setting is enabled. Even when you set a language to be automatically translated, it does not translate automatically.

Comment 1

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

The translation menu does not automatically appear on the site for translation, even if the setting is enabled.

Did this change happen recently? I understand the behavior recently changed on bug 1970084. It looks like is now gated by isLargeWindow().

What is the device type you are on and model? I can confirm a Pixel 4a (14) 142 Nightly (dimensions) does not show the translations icon on a page that would have offered an icon on the toolbar in the past.

Comment 2

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

Even when you set a language to be automatically translated, it does not translate automatically.

Would you mind to provide your intl.accept-languages list from about:config or OS Settings -> Languages -> System Languages language list? This can sometimes happen when the page target language and an accept language are the same. I'd have to know the full language setup to debug, though.

(The issue could just be something going on with accept-languages instead of bug 1970084, because it also impacts how "translation offers" occur. Harder to say off-hand now, however.)

Comment 3

[eclaudiu64]

I have seen this error on 3 phones: Samsung Galaxy G82, a Redmi and a Moto. Here the behavior is different, the automatic translation language selection menu does not appear at all, with the option active, I noticed that the translation icon was removed from the toolbar. I've changed the languages in all modes, in the app, etc., still nothing changes. I only noticed one thing, when I modify intl.accept-languages and reset it and have it automatically translate, for example, English into Romanian, it gets translated.

Comment 4

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

Thanks for the information!

I only noticed one thing, when I modify intl.accept-languages and reset it and have it automatically translate, for example, English into Romanian, it gets translated.

Sounds like the same root cause as in bug 1948445. (I'm haven't 100% confirmed if that is the case, so I'm not yet going to mark this one as a duplicate of that one. Especially since the impact here is slightly different than in that bug populating v. automatically translating.)

It boils down to GeckoView having different expectations around intl.accept_languages than Desktop.

From bug 1948445 comment 11:

If it has been changed from the default, and English is still in the list, then we have to assume at that point the user kept English there intentionally.

The bug is in GeckoView, it looks incorrectly to the system like English was intentionally added as a user pref to intl.accept_languages because the way it was sent. Because of that, it assumes the user would like English to be a "translate to" language and it causes odd behavior.

Comment 5

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

Attachment: Bug 1975878 - Always initialize translations binding regardless of whether the translations page action is present.

Comment 6

[Phabricator Automation]

Comment on attachment 9499253 [details]
Bug 1975878 - Always initialize translations binding regardless of whether the translations page action is present.

Revision D256478 was moved to bug 1976032. Setting attachment 9499253 [details] to obsolete.

Comment 7

[eclaudiu64]

I hope this error will be fixed soon.

Comment 8

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

Fixed landed in Bug 1976032 and is in Beta and Nightly. Uplift to release was just accepted and will be in the next dot release. Thanks

Comment 9

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

Even when you set a language to be automatically translated, it does not translate automatically.

This is a different bug and is likely bug 1948445.

Comment 10

[eclaudiu64]

(In reply to Olivia Hall [:olivia] from comment #9)

Even when you set a language to be automatically translated, it does not translate automatically.

This is a different bug and is likely bug 1948445.

Yes, this is a separate error that needs to be resolved.

Comment 11

[eclaudiu64]

When will this error be resolved?

Comment 12

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

Bug 1948445 is being tracked by the GV team, which should improve the automatic translations experience.

UX and product partners are looking at alternatives on how to present translations as a feature.

Comment 13

[eclaudiu64]

It will need to be resolved as soon as possible, because in the address bar, toolbar, the translation button is no longer available and it is difficult to go to the menu every time and click on translation.

Comment 14

[eclaudiu64]

(In reply to Olivia Hall [:olivia] from comment #12)

Bug 1948445 is being tracked by the GV team, which should improve the automatic translations experience.

UX and product partners are looking at alternatives on how to present translations as a feature.

Any news about resolving this error?

Comment 15

[eclaudiu64]

When will this error be resolved?

Comment 16

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

Attachment: Screen_recording_20260119_133857.mp4

Comment 17

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

:eclaudiu64 Looks like it's resolved from my testing. Do you not see it at all or just that particular site? Can you please try other sites as well to double check? Thanks

Comment 18

[eclaudiu64]

(In reply to Roger Yang [:royang] from comment #17)

:eclaudiu64 Looks like it's resolved from my testing. Do you not see it at all or just that particular site? Can you please try other sites as well to double check? Thanks

It doesn't work on any site for me, no automatic menu appears for translation. I also encounter it on Android 10 and Android 15 and 16. I think the error is not resolved for multiple languages, I don't know.

Comment 19

[Roger Yang [:royang]]

That's strange. I'll keep this issue open and add it to our backlog for investigation. In the meantime, can you please try toggle the "Always offer to translate" switch off and on? Just in case it's some weird state. Thanks

Comment 20

[eclaudiu64]

(In reply to Roger Yang [:royang] from comment #19)

That's strange. I'll keep this issue open and add it to our backlog for investigation. In the meantime, can you please try toggle the "Always offer to translate" switch off and on? Just in case it's some weird state. Thanks

I tried turning it off and on and it still doesn't show up. I also downloaded the languages and still nothing. I have 2 phones with the same model and on one I see the translation menu showing up and on the other phone not displayed.

Comment 21

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

I only noticed one thing, when I modify intl.accept-languages and reset it and have it automatically translate, for example, English into Romanian, it gets translated.

Do you mind sharing what is in the intl.accept-languages list from about:config? Some of the things you've said make me continue to think this is a form of bug 1948445.

I have 2 phones with the same model and on one I see the translation menu showing up and on the other phone not displayed.

Could you check the system language settings between the two phones? Something like: OS Settings -> Languages -> System Languages. Multiple languages in a specific order are also an option.

Part of how we guess at languages a user knows is based on this list. We don't automatically offer to translate in situations where our best guess is that the user will want to read the page as-is. We also have difficulty determining the "Translate to" language for the same reasons.

If the icon isn't showing up at all, even deep in the menus, then this is a separate issue we can talk about too. (Translations are only supported on devices of a certain architecture (generally speaking, aarch64) that supports WASM.)

Comment 22

[eclaudiu64]

Attachment: Screenshot_20260205-040100.png

I'm back with a detail that reproduces the error. When I have multiple languages to select in the phone's language list in the phone settings, the automatic translation panel also appears. When I leave only my language in the list and delete the other language from the list, the translation panel automatically appears on websites.

Comment 23

[Olivia Hall [:olivia]]

Thank you for the details, this is all very helpful!

Comment 24

[eclaudiu64]

So the error is reproduced when I have many languages listed in the phone settings, then the translation panel does not appear.