How can a user change the language?

Whether you've just received a new DPMS account in the wrong language or simply prefer to work in your native tongue, the User Settings screen is where you take control — letting you switch the interface language in seconds and check your two-factor authentication status, all without needing any special permissions.

Every logged-in DPMS user — compliance officers, DPOs, IT administrators, risk managers — has access to User Settings. It is your personal corner of the platform where you can switch the interface language to one that suits you and review your two-factor authentication (2FA) status. Think of it as the personal counterpart to the IT Settings area: your IT administrator decides which languages are available and whether 2FA is required company-wide, and you then customise your own experience here.

How to open it

Click your avatar or user name in the top-right corner of any DPMS screen. A small dropdown appears with account options — select User Settings from that menu. You will land directly on the Languages tab. No special administrative permission is needed; every authenticated user can reach this screen.

What you see

The screen is divided into two areas. On the left is a narrow panel showing the heading User Settings and a short vertical menu beneath it. By default this menu contains a single entry — Languages — which is already active when you arrive. If your IT administrator has enabled two-factor authentication company-wide, a second entry, 2FA Configuration, also appears. If you don't see it, that simply means your organisation has not switched on that feature yet.

The right side takes up most of the screen and shows the content panel for whichever menu item is active. For the Languages tab, you'll see a card labelled Language with a single row: "Change language". On the right side of that row sits a small globe icon — this is the language picker. The layout is intentionally minimal: there are no tables, no search bars, and no Save button (more on that below).

Working with this screen

Switching the interface language

This is by far the most common reason people visit User Settings. Imagine you received your account in English, but you work in German — here's how to fix that in under a minute.

Once you're on the Languages tab (the default landing point), locate the Language card on the right side of the screen.
Click the globe icon in the "Change language" row. A small dropdown menu appears listing every language your IT administrator has activated for your organisation — for example, English and Deutsch.
Click the language you want — for instance Deutsch. DPMS will briefly navigate to a background route that saves your preference to your account, then reload the page. The entire interface — menus, labels, form field names, error messages, date formats — will reappear in the language you chose. There is no separate Save button; selecting the language is all it takes.

From this point on, every screen in DPMS — from the Records of Processing Activities to the risk register — will display in your chosen language, even if you log in from a different device or browser, because the preference is stored on your account.

Heads up: After you click a language, the page will visibly reload. This is normal. DPMS stores your language preference on the server so it persists across sessions, and a brief page reload is part of that process.

Checking whether your language options are missing

If you click the globe icon and the dropdown appears but is completely empty, it means your IT administrator has not yet activated any additional languages for the company. You won't be able to switch languages yourself — the list of available options is controlled entirely in IT Settings.

In this case, contact your IT administrator and ask them to enable the desired languages under the Language/Localisation section of IT Settings. Once they do, the options will appear in your dropdown immediately on your next visit.

Reviewing your two-factor authentication status

If your organisation requires two-factor authentication (2FA), a second entry — 2FA Configuration — will appear in the left-hand menu. This tab lets you confirm whether your account has a second factor registered.

Click 2FA Configuration in the left-hand menu (or navigate directly to the 2FA settings page).
The right panel shows a card titled 2FA Configuration with a single row: Status. The value will be either Activated or Unregistered.
If the status shows Activated, a short informational note appears below the card explaining what this means for your login experience.
If the status shows Unregistered, you have not yet linked a second-factor device (such as an authenticator app) to your account. Setting up a device is handled in the authentication flow when you log in — this screen is read-only and exists purely so you can check your current status.

Tip: If you registered a 2FA device very recently in another session and the status still shows "Unregistered", refresh the page — the status is loaded from the server when the page opens.

Field reference

Change language (globe icon) — Opens the language picker dropdown. Click it to see all languages your IT administrator has activated for your company. Clicking a language immediately saves and applies it. No further action is required.

Status (on the 2FA Configuration tab) — Read-only. Shows either Activated (a second-factor device is linked to your account) or Unregistered (no device has been set up). You cannot change this value from this screen.

How this connects to the rest of DPMS

The language you select here flows through every part of DPMS. Menu items, column headers in the asset register, field labels in risk assessments, and button text in the Records of Processing Activities will all appear in your chosen language. This is not a cosmetic preference stored only in your browser — it is saved to your account on the server, so it follows you across devices and sessions.

The languages available in the dropdown are set by your IT administrator in the IT Settings module. If you need a language that isn't listed, they are the right person to ask.

The 2FA tab's visibility depends entirely on a setting in IT Settings. If your administrator turns 2FA on or off company-wide, the menu item will appear or disappear for all users the next time they load the page.

After setting your language, you don't need to do anything else on this screen — you can navigate straight back to your main work area, and DPMS will remember your preference.

Tips & common pitfalls

Heads up: There is no Save button on the Languages tab. The moment you click a language in the dropdown, the change is applied and saved. First-time users sometimes look for a confirmation step that isn't there.

Tip: If the 2FA Configuration tab doesn't appear in your left-hand menu, it's not a bug — it means your organisation hasn't enabled 2FA yet. Only your IT administrator can turn this on.

The dropdown is empty? Your IT admin needs to activate languages in IT Settings first. Users cannot add languages themselves.
The page reloads when you change language. This is expected. DPMS saves your preference server-side, which requires a brief reload. Your new language will be active immediately after the reload completes.
Neither card has an Edit button. This is intentional. The language card's interactive control is the globe icon built into the row, and the 2FA card is purely informational. You haven't missed a step.
2FA status shows "Unregistered" after you set it up. Refresh the page. The status is fetched from the server when the settings page loads; a recent registration in another session may not yet be reflected.