topic Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard in XA Series

Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

Cam-S — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 22:22:52 GMT

The keyboard on my XA is the Chinese keyboard. Is this normal? It supports English, but I'd like to get rid of it if possible. However, when I go into Settings to change it to English, there's only the Chinese keyboard available, and that is greyed out. (Language is set to English.)

Is there no way of changing?

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

CameronT — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 03:43:33 GMT

Hi @Cam-S,

When you go to Settings > Language & input > Current Keyboard, there should be an option for "More Keyboards". If you tap on that, you can enable and disable the various keyboards in the phone.

Does that help?

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

Cam-S — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 09:39:43 GMT

Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough. When I go to 'More Keyboards', there is only the Chinese keyboard available, and that option is greyed out.

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

CameronT — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 23:51:30 GMT

That's very strange. Under Settings > Apps, see if you can find the Swiftkey keyboard and see if it is disabled.

If it's not there at all, you may need to perform a software repair using Xperia Companion.

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

Neo2017 — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 07:29:59 GMT

hey, I know exactly what you're talking about. it appears as ' Xperia Chinese keyboard ', right? mine has the same. seems like you're not only the one. I don't think you can get rid of it.

in my case, I disabled ' SwiftKey keyboard ' by accident, so there was absolutely no way to type in English (because there was no English keyboard), unless I use Chinese keyboard at that time. since I'm not Chinese, I kinda freaked out. then, I simply got ' gboard ' from google. eventually, I realized that my ' SwiftKey keyboard ' was disabled, so I enabled it and I got the English keyboard back. phew.

I live in North America, so it's obviously my xperia xa is for North American market model. however, there's no ' Xperia English keyboard ' built-in. it doesn't make any sense at all. cearly, sony simply put ' SwiftKey keyboard ' on xperia xa for North American market model and didn't bother. interesting, huh?

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

Cam-S — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 09:33:43 GMT

Thanks for that. Yes, I had disabled SwiftKey by accident as well. I've now enabled it again.

The Chinese keyboard (in English mode) is actually better in some ways than Swiftkey!

(And once again a customer is of more use than Sony support.)

Re: Can't switch out of Chinese keyboard

CameronT — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 01:37:34 GMT

@Cam-S,

But I said the same thing

@CameronT wrote:
That's very strange. Under Settings > Apps, see if you can find the Swiftkey keyboard and see if it is disabled.

I am glad you got it working though

@Neo2017, thank you. The Xperia Keyboard can still be sideloaded, just fyi I can't help you with how though...