I previously introduced the major QGIS 4 release in QGIS 4.0 Officially Released, but one issue has long troubled many Chinese-speaking users: Chinese language support. From 4.0 to 4.2, after switching the language to Simplified Chinese on Mac and restarting, the interface was still in English. In QGIS Latest Version 4.2 Released (QGIS 4.x LTR Version Coming Soon), I could only provide a temporary workaround using startup.py to manually load translations. QGIS 4.2.3 was released on September 25, and this issue has finally been fixed. In addition, the problem of Mac being unable to connect to PostGIS has also been fixed. Today I will walk you through it.

Multilingual Settings Fix

The reason the Chinese setting did not take effect was not the translation itself, but the path to the translation files. When QGIS loads translations, it looks for qgis_zh-Hans.qm in the i18n folder under the package data directory. Previously, the official Mac package resolved this data directory to QGIS.app/Contents/MacOS instead of the package root directory, so the translation files could not be loaded and the interface fell back to English.

4.2.3 fixes the data directory resolution in the Mac package, so translation files can be found at the normal path. Go to Settings → Options → General, change the interface language to Simplified Chinese, and restart for it to take effect. This version also synchronizes a round of translation resources from Transifex.

If you previously followed my method and added startup.py, I recommend deleting this file after upgrading to avoid duplicate loading with the built-in translations. Also note that fixing the path only means the Chinese language pack can load. Translation coverage still depends on community progress, and menus for some new features may still be in English.

Major PostGIS Update

On Mac, QGIS 4.2 cannot connect to PostGIS. It is recommended to upgrade directly to 4.2.3. The cause was that session_role in the connection parameters was also passed to the PostgreSQL client library, causing the connection to fail. 4.2.3 no longer passes this parameter.

Another fix is for PostGIS raster. Previously, after a raster table in the database was updated, the layer in QGIS would not refresh; it had to be removed and re-added. 4.2.3 adds reloading of PostGIS raster data sources, which will be much more convenient for those using PostGIS to manage imagery or DEM.

Other Improvements

In addition to the two items above, 4.2.3 includes dozens of fixes. I picked a few that are commonly encountered in daily use:

  1. Map services: ArcGIS REST layers now treat <Null> strings returned by the service as null values; the sign of the symbol Y offset was also corrected; QGIS Server fixes include the WMS time dimension, highlighting when exporting PDF via GetMap, and layer group information in capabilities documents.
  2. Tile export: When exporting XYZ directories or MBTiles, project variables and project colors can now participate in rendering correctly.
  3. Vector tiles: When importing Mapbox GL styles, symbol-spacing is temporarily no longer read. Styles that rely on it to control symbol spacing may display differently after upgrading.
  4. Processing: Fixed errors in processing history, dynamic parameters in the profile algorithm not taking effect, and reversed parameter order when generating raster cell centers from polygon features.
  5. UI and editing: Vertex editing markers no longer scale with the symbol reference scale; after changing the map theme, the project is correctly marked as unsaved; unlit material display in 3D on Mac is restored.

Conclusion

Since QGIS 4 was released in March, the Chinese interface on Mac has never worked properly, and PostGIS connections had problems in 4.2. For users in China, these two issues were enough to make people stay on 3.44. After 4.2.3 fixes both issues together, and with the Tianditu plugin having long been updated (see Trying QGIS 4.0.2 (Tianditu Plugin Available, macOS Chinese Localization Unavailable, Compatibility Needs Improvement)), QGIS 4.x is now basically ready to serve as a daily-use version. Those who have been holding off can install it and give it a try.

What version are you currently using? Feel free to leave feedback in the comments.

References

  1. QGIS 4.2.3 release page: https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/releases/tag/final-4_2_3
  2. Mac package data directory fix: https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/commit/40fb4e1
  3. Issue report for Mac failing to connect to PostGIS: https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/issues/67178
  4. QGIS version roadmap: https://www.qgis.org/resources/roadmap/