I have the same problem. Pretty sure it's German. Surely it should default to English.

I just downloaded latest release VS Mac version. The installer starts in Chinese language, while my Mac is in English.

Thanks, all - this is a known issue and we're tracking down a fix. We plan to fix this in a future update.

Jordan

Mine is showing Chinese characters. I also have multiple keyboards present. This is a pretty big impediment to gaining full confidence that the rest of the product behaves well. Does the application revert to English once the install is complete or should I cancel the install?

My problem was that installer was in French and failed on finalization with the following error:

Échec de l'installation de Visual Studio avec plusieurs exceptions (tentative n° 3)

Some installation errors are present.

Exception type: System.AggregateException

Message: Some installation errors are present.

Exception type: Xamarin.Web.Installer.InstallException

Message: Unexpected output format.

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.MacInstallationArchiveHandler.InstallDmg (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00078] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/MacInstallationArchiveHandler.Mac.cs:110

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.Installer.InstallationArchiveHandler.Install (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00056] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/Installer/InstallationArchiveHandler.cs:31

Exception type: Xamarin.Web.Installer.InstallException

Message: Unexpected output format.

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.MacInstallationArchiveHandler.InstallDmg (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00078] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/MacInstallationArchiveHandler.Mac.cs:110

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.Installer.InstallationArchiveHandler.Install (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00056] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/Installer/InstallationArchiveHandler.cs:31

Exception type: Xamarin.Web.Installer.InstallException

Message: Unexpected output format.

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.MacInstallationArchiveHandler.InstallDmg (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00078] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/MacInstallationArchiveHandler.Mac.cs:110

at Xamarin.Web.Installer.Installer.InstallationArchiveHandler.Install (System.String path, System.Boolean needsPrivileges) [0x00056] in /Users/builder/data/lanes/4852/862a6443/source/installer/Xamarin.Web.Installer/Installer/InstallationArchiveHandler.cs:31

If you have another language in your macOS preferences it seems to go for the first one in alphabetical order rather than checking to see which language is marked as your primary. In system preferences -> languages and regions remove all other languages except your primary for a work-around.

Jim Malak's solution fixed the language problem. However, the install still fails with the same errors I reported in a previous post. I hope Microsoft is paying attention. So far, VS for Mac sucks. I am wondering whether the product itself once downloaded is as buggy as the install.

I confirmed that this issue isn't in Visual Studio for Mac itself, but it is limited to the installer. We're absolutely paying attention, thanks for speaking up here!

Jordan, PM, Visual Studio for Mac

Language problem solved, but install failed with same error as before.

This issue is not fixed. I'm installing VS Enterprise for Mac and the installer does not respect the default language. I have both English and Polish, with English set as primary. By removing Polish from System Preferences > Language and Region, it then installs in English. It seems like the workaround is to have ONLY English in the Preferred languages section.