anki2-change-defaultLang-to-en.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

# An `ad-hoc` script to change user interface language
# for Anki2 on Ubuntu 12.04 desktop.

# Usage: anki2-change-defaultLang-to-en.py [lang]
#
# Examples:
#   # Change to english interface
#   $ anki2-change-defaultLang-to-en.py en
#
#   # Change to japanese interface
#   $ anki2-change-defaultLang-to-en.py ja
#
#   Available language codes are in following URL.
#   https://github.com/dae/anki/blob/master/anki/lang.py
#

import sys
import os
import sqlite3
import cPickle

# set lang
if 2 <= len(sys.argv):
    YOUR_LANG = sys.argv[1]
else:
    YOUR_LANG = "en"    # english


def fetch_meta_info(db):
    # Get default profile
    data = db.execute("select data from profiles where name='_global'")
    # encode('utf-8') is for fixing "TypeError: must be string, not unicode"
    meta = cPickle.loads(data.fetchone()[0].encode('utf-8'))
    return meta

# Open config DB
db = sqlite3.connect(os.path.expanduser("~/Anki/prefs.db"))
try:
    meta = fetch_meta_info(db)
    old_lang = meta['defaultLang']

    if old_lang == YOUR_LANG:
        print "INFO: Already changed lang to `%s`" % YOUR_LANG
        exit()

    # Change lang to YOUR_LANG you want
    meta['defaultLang'] = YOUR_LANG

    # Update config DB!!
    db.execute("update profiles set data = ? where name = ?",
            (cPickle.dumps(meta), "_global"))
    db.commit()

    # Check and notify
    new_lang = fetch_meta_info(db)['defaultLang']
    if new_lang != YOUR_LANG:
        raise Exception("ERROR: Could not change defaultLang")
    print "INFO: Updated interface lang `%s` to `%s`" % (old_lang, new_lang)
finally:
    db.close()

Thank you, this really helped!

Make sure to close Anki before running the script.