Chrome displaying nonsense that pastes as English in Google translate
March 7, 2024 7:39 AM   Subscribe

Basically, gobbledygook is showing up everywhere in Google Chrome, but it's perfectly fine when I copy and paste it into Google Translate - without even translating. Can't really put this into words - links to pictures in the "more inside" since it's easier to show than tell in this instance.

I'm on a 2023 MacBook Pro (M2) running the most current OS X -- Sonoma 14.3.1 (23D60) -- and running the most current Google Chrome -- Version 122.0.6261.112 (Official Build) (arm64). Links are to screen caps.

Random instances of nonsense letters have been showing up everywhere, from emails in my gmail to Wikipedia entries.

I selected and copied the nonsense words and put them into Google Translate with "detect language" as the default -- but the nonsense I copied pasted in as English. The random letters did not paste into the translate window.

I'm at a complete loss. Help is appreciated.

(And yes, I did turn it off and then back on again)
posted by tzikeh to Computers & Internet (17 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Does it happen in another browser?
Does it happen in Chrome but with all extensions off?
Does it consistently happen with those same webpages, or only sometimes?

Have you installed any of those cute extensions that replace one word with another? If so, maybe one of them is acting up.
posted by nat at 7:58 AM on March 7, 2024


Something is causing each character to be shifted +2.

In either ASCII or Unicode, G (character code 47) becomes I (character code 49), space (32) becomes quotation mark (35).

Hence, "Goal Posts" becomes "Iqcn"Rquvu".
posted by Klipspringer at 8:02 AM on March 7, 2024 [6 favorites]


The characters are all off by two, so where there should be an 'A', it is showing you a 'C' and where there should be a 'B' it is showing you a 'D'. Thus the 'Iqcn Rquvu' text in your email should read 'Goal Posts'. I note the problem text on Wikipedia is italicised and the text in your email is a header so it may be that a particular style of a particular font is corrupted.

I'm not a mac user but by searching I found someone who fixed a similar problem by going to the "font book" app and clicking File | Restore System Fonts. Another suggestion is to reinstall or disable the Roboto typeface.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 8:03 AM on March 7, 2024 [3 favorites]




Response by poster: Does it happen in another browser?

It does not happen in Safari on either that email or that Wikipedia entry.

Does it consistently happen with those same webpages, or only sometimes?

Always, with Chrome.

Have you installed any of those cute extensions that replace one word with another?

No.

I will try the Roboto thing.
posted by tzikeh at 8:15 AM on March 7, 2024


Response by poster: I do not have Robot installed on my Mac.
posted by tzikeh at 8:18 AM on March 7, 2024


Response by poster: ^^ sorry: I do not have "Roboto" installed on my Mac. That was autocorrect.
posted by tzikeh at 8:24 AM on March 7, 2024


Response by poster: Sorry to threadsit - one more thing. I am using different Chrome profiles, and each of them have different extensions, different caches, different histories -- but the problem remains across all of them. One of them has no extensions at all. I tried with that one and the same thing is happening, so I don't think it's a Chrome extension issue.
posted by tzikeh at 8:44 AM on March 7, 2024


Feels like a font corruption issue.
posted by Klipspringer at 8:46 AM on March 7, 2024 [6 favorites]


This person on Reddit resolved it by restoring the standard fonts which came with their Mac.

Any fonts you’ve installed will be placed in /Library/Fonts (Removed) or in ~/Library/Fonts (Removed).
posted by Klipspringer at 9:02 AM on March 7, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: One thing to check is what fonts are set as default in your browser's settings. That will narrow down which font might be problematic or corrupted. A quick fix would be updating that font to another in settings.
posted by limeonaire at 11:03 AM on March 7, 2024


Response by poster: I've tried everything here and nothing has worked.
posted by tzikeh at 1:16 PM on March 10, 2024


Best answer: Hmm. Frustrating!

To narrow it down, could you find out what font is in use when text is mangled? To do this, right-click some mangled text in Chrome and click Inspect. Then look for the Rendered Font as shown in this screenshot.
posted by Klipspringer at 5:16 AM on March 11, 2024


Best answer: And, for comparison, the font in use in the non-mangled non-italic text of the body of that Wikipedia article.
posted by Klipspringer at 5:25 AM on March 11, 2024


Response by poster: For Klipspringer, if you see this

I did what you said. The "mangled" font is Helvetica Oblique. Non-mangled fonts on the same page are all in the Helvetica family.
posted by tzikeh at 9:23 AM on March 16, 2024


Response by poster: Ahhhhh I went back into the "customize fonts" in Chrome and one was set to Helvetica. I changed it to Arial and the problem is gone. Thanks everyone!
posted by tzikeh at 9:26 AM on March 16, 2024


Nice! Glad you got it fixed.
posted by Klipspringer at 9:30 AM on March 16, 2024


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