When Your Laravel App Suddenly Shows Translation Keys Instead of Text

If your Laravel application suddenly displays raw translation keys like app.user.name instead of actual text, you're dealing with a common translation system issue.

The Root Cause: Duplicate Language Files

The culprit is typically duplicate language files in different locations. When Laravel finds a language file in a higher-priority location that doesn't contain all needed translations, it stops searching and shows the raw key instead.

How to Fix It

1. Find duplicate language files by checking:

   /resources/lang/{locale}/
   /lang/{locale}/

   Look for files with the same name but in different locations.

2. Resolve the duplicates by:

   • Deleting files created in the wrong location
   • Merging translations into the correct files

3. Clear Laravel caches:

   php artisan cache:clear
   php artisan config:clear
   php artisan view:clear

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