Changing the default language of an existing SharePoint site

Recently, I had a problem with one of my SharePoint team site. The problem was that the site’s created in English, however; we need it in Persian. Adding Persian as an Alternate language could be a good solution but we need the site just in Persian.

I tried to change it programmatically but it didn’t work since the Language property of SPWeb object is read-only! The only way I found and worked very well was updating language field in the Database.

Solution:

1. Open up AllWebs table in the correct Database
2. Find the desired site and change the value of Language Field
   The language code for English is “1033” and for Persian is “1065”

You could also do it by executing an update query if you know the SiteCollectionId:
       Update dbo.AllWebs set Language=”1065″ Where SiteId=”SiteCollectionId”

Warning:

• Directly modifying the Database will invalidate Microsoft’s support.