Cannot change Atlassian account language for managed users

Question

Hello,

I am an admin for our Jira Cloud site and our users are using managed accounts with Entra ID SSO.

Two users (for example: exp-ext@xxx.com) want to change the language of their Atlassian account from French to English. We followed the official documentation:

Avatar → Profile → Manage your account → Account preferences → Language

However:

* For these users, the language setting is not editable / not available, and they are told to contact an administrator.

* I tried impersonating / logging in as the users and I see the same behavior: the language cannot be modified from the Atlassian account preferences.

* In admin.atlassian.com, the user is shown as a managed account, with an Entra ID SSO authentication policy. I can see the user details (apps, groups, security, etc.), but there is no option to change the Atlassian account language for this user.

* I am a Jira admin and have admin access to admin.atlassian.com, but I do not see any setting at the organization level to override or set the user’s language.

My questions are:

* Is it possible for an org admin or site admin to change the Atlassian account language of a managed user on their behalf?

* If yes, where exactly can this be done in admin.atlassian.com or elsewhere?

* If not, is this a current limitation of Atlassian Cloud for managed accounts, or is it a bug that prevents users (and admins) from changing the language?

* Is there any workaround to force the Atlassian account language to English for specific managed users?

Ait Benhida Fatimaezzahra · Answer

Thank you all for your responses.
The users have already tried to change their language from their Atlassian account preferences. We have also confirmed that both accounts are managed accounts.
One of the users is redirected to contact the administrator and cannot access the language setting.
Based on your feedback, this does not appear to be expected behavior for managed accounts.
We will raise a support ticket with Atlassian to investigate further.
Thank you for your help.

Liz Tanner · Answer

Hey there @Ait Benhida Fatimaezzahra and welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I think this Support documentation link will answer a few of your questions!

Short version: App admins can set the default language, but even on managed accounts, users can set their own language preference, which will override any language settings by the app admin.

That link will also walk you directly to where team members can change their language preference. Click on your avatar in the top right>Account settings>Account preferences and then Language can be changed in the dropdown. I am not sure how to "lock" that away from users. There are also a couple of tidbits about how the Jira admin can configure language internalization at this Support doc too.

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

Hi @Ait Benhida Fatimaezzahra

Welcome to the community.

This is not possible.

This is in the Account Settings of a user, and only a user can modify these settings.

A uses is always able to change their language settings in their account.

This is the link for these users to use: https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/account-preferences

If this is not working for them, have them try another browser of incognito window, if this works have them clear their browser cache and cookies.

If this is not working, a support ticket needs to be raised.