Language and Region unexpectedly changed

My wife's iPhone 17e unexpectedly changed country settings.

She became aware of this when she looked at the Weather App and noticed the temperatures were displayed in degrees F not C. When I checked the iPhone, I discovered that the Language and Region had changed to United States from United Kingdom.

When I changed it back the settings for many Apps became changed and some things no longer synchronise correctly with her Apple Watch. The Bluetooth pairing with her hearing aids has to be re-set each time the iPhone is turned off. This never happened previously.

iOS is fully up to date as are all Apps.

My wife would not change settings and no-one else apart from us knows the password to access the iPhone.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated . . .

Posted on Oct 15, 2026 4:16 AM

1 reply

WheelieNick

Level 9 (74,110 points)

Oct 15, 2026 6:30 AM in response to JJGraphics

Hi there

Please try this

Step 1: Unpair and Re-pair the Apple Watch

When an iPhone shifts regions, the Apple Watch often gets stuck in a loop trying to sync data based on the old region's formatting rules.

Open the Watch app on the iPhone.
Tap All Watches in the top left, then tap the yellow "i" icon next to her watch.
Tap Unpair Apple Watch.
Once completed, hold the Apple Watch near the iPhone to pair it again and restore it from the backup that was just automatically created. This forces the watch to adopt the proper United Kingdom system rules.

Step 2: Clear and Rebuild the Bluetooth Cache for Hearing Aids

The hearing aid connection drop when turning off the phone indicates that the Bluetooth plist (settings) file is corrupt.

Go to Settings > Bluetooth, find the hearing aids, tap the "i" icon, and select Forget This Device.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices and ensure they are removed from there as well.
Restart the iPhone.
Put the hearing aids into pairing mode, go back to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices, and pair them fresh.