[Bug]: Setting a different locale does not work as expected

[DanielStoica85]

Version

1.44.0

Steps to reproduce

I am based in The Netherlands. I am trying to write a test that checks if a redirect happens as expected based on the user's locale or location. The example I will give you below tests the Adidas website. This is just an example, I don't actually work at/for Adidas. :)

This is the test:

import { test, expect, type Page } from '@playwright/test';

test.use({
  locale: 'de-DE',
  timezoneId: 'Europe/Berlin',
});

test('test', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://www.adidas.com', { timeout: 45000 });
  await page.waitForURL('https://www.adidas.de');
});

Expected behavior

I expect to be redirected to https://www.adidas.de

Actual behavior

I am redirected to https://www.adidas.nl

Additional context

It seems like the redirect happens based on my actual location/locale and not based on the one I set by using test.use().

Environment

System:
    OS: macOS 14.4.1
    CPU: (16) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz
    Memory: 1012.85 MB / 32.00 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 18.7.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.7.0/bin/node
    npm: 8.15.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.7.0/bin/npm
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 1.89.1 - /usr/local/bin/code
  Languages:
    Bash: 3.2.57 - /bin/bash
  npmPackages:
    @playwright/test: ^1.44.0 => 1.44.0

I tested this with several other locales, but the redirect still always happens based on my "real" location and not based on the one I set in the test.

[DanielStoica85]

Update 1

I also added this to check what the detected locale is and the result was indeed de-DE, but somehow the redirect still does not happen accordingly.

// Execute JavaScript in the browser context to get the detected locale
  const detectedLocale = await page.evaluate(() => {
    // Access the browser's navigator object to get the language
    return navigator.language;
  });

  console.log('Detected Locale:', detectedLocale);

Update 2

Also checked the request headers and the Accept-Language is indeed de-DE, but then in the response headers I also see this:

Update 3: tried this on other websites as well and I always get redirected based on my real location and not based on the one set by Playwright

[yury-s]

They may be redirecting you based on your IP address or some other logic. The adidas url does redirect me to 'https://www.adidas.com/us'. If you think that Playwright is not changing some settings properly based on locale, please provide a self contained reproduction which we could run locally.

[DanielStoica85]

If that is the case (it most likely is), is there another (better) way to emulate a location by using Playwright, so that we can verify that the redirect happens as expected based on location?

[mxschmitt]

IP address based geolocation detection can only be emulated on the networking level, so e.g. a proxy might work for you.

Closing since thats not a bug in Playwright.