The VideoLAN Forums

VLC player (2.0.6) menu interface language suddenly changed to English, even though it is set to my native language.
What happened?

Try to set it to Automatic.
BTW your VLC version is very old, you should update.

I've tried it already, didn't work.
I'm using this old version because it supports mkv cropping parameters, as opposed to the newer versions I've tried.

If you've experienced a sudden change in vlc which you can't account for it would be advisable to scan the machine for viruses. Version 2.2.8 and earlier are vulnerable to a security vulnerability whereby a remote user can execute arbitrary code on the system but creating a specially crafted MKV file. See this site for more details.

The vulnerability was fixed in vlc 3.0.3

But vlc 3.0.3 & 3.0.4 only follow the User Interface language at all and ignore the selected settings in the preferences of vlc.
This is a general issue and should be checked by the admins/developers.
The value is correctly set within the registry (HKCU hive) but then it doesn't get applied at all.

And the "menu-language=" option in the vlcrc file seems to be always activated and set to the language of the location…
Is this also intended to be that way? Usually the menu language and the default language of my actual location are two completely different things...