Cloning existing GitHub repository yields &#39;Invalid &quot;america/new&quot; locale&#39; error

Level 58

Hi Rick,

The error message:

Invalid "america/new" locale.

means that somewhere in your configuration, the locale is being set to america/new, which is not a valid locale string. Locale values should use underscores or hyphens (like en_US or en), not slashes.

Let's break down your .env and config/app.php:

Your .env:

APP_TIMEZONE=America/New_York
APP_URL=http://localhost

APP_LOCALE=america/new_york
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US

Your config/app.php:

'timezone' => env('APP_TIMEZONE', 'America/New_York'),
'locale' => env('APP_LOCALE', 'en'),
'fallback_locale' => env('APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE', 'en'),
'faker_locale' => env('APP_FAKER_LOCALE', 'en_US'),

The Issue

APP_TIMEZONE is correct: America/New_York (for timezones, slashes are valid).
APP_LOCALE is set to america/new_york, which is not a valid locale. Locales should look like en, en_US, fr, etc.

The error message refers to america/new, which suggests that somewhere, the value is being truncated or misread (possibly due to a typo or an environment variable parsing issue).

Solution

1. Change your .env to use a valid locale:

Replace:

APP_LOCALE=america/new_york

with:

APP_LOCALE=en

or, if you want US English:

APP_LOCALE=en_US

2. Clear your config cache:

After updating your .env, run:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear

3. Try running composer again:

composer dump-autoload
composer install

Why did this work on your old machine?

Your old machine may have had a cached or default value for APP_LOCALE.
The new machine is reading the .env as-is, and the invalid value is causing the error.

Summary

Locales (APP_LOCALE) should be like en, en_US, fr, etc.
Timezones (APP_TIMEZONE) can be like America/New_York.

Final .env example:

APP_TIMEZONE=America/New_York
APP_URL=http://localhost

APP_LOCALE=en
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US

Let me know if this solves your issue!

Level 30

I definitely saw somebody's answer here telling you should have

APP_LOCALE=en

But now the answer disappeared.

Level 30

@ghabe my guess is people often don't take AI-generated answers seriously and better appreciate exact human answer of 2 lines rather than AI generated "may be nonsense" answer of 2 pages.

ejaz

Level 1

@ghabe nice

ejaz

Level 1

@Glukinho pop

1 like

ejaz

Level 1

@ghabe test

martinbean

Level 80

@rretzko This is not a valid locale:

APP_LOCALE=america/new_york

The locale should be something like en_US.

As an aside, you should also be storing dates and times as UTC in your database to prevent oddities with converting timezones, daylight savings, etc.

Level 15

Thanks, guys. I made that change:

APP_LOCALE=en_US
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US

and tried running

php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:clear

and hit the identical error. I ran the global "find" on PhpStorm looking for the phrase "new york" thinking that maybe I've left the underscore out somewhere and found nothing helpful. Any other thoughts on troubleshooting? Thanks again!

martinbean

Level 80

@rretzko I imagine the “bad” locale value’s gotten cached somewhere deep within your application/the framework.

Can you try running php artisan optimize:clear and post the error you get, if you do get one?

Level 30

@Rretzko make APP_LOCALE=en not en_US

At least, default .env file after fresh Laravel install has APP_LOCALE=en.

upd: and don't forget php artisan optimize:clear of course

Level 15

OK, I've found a way to move forward, but not to solve the problem: I've changed the APP_LOCALE to en-US. If I change the .env file APP_TIMEZONE to:

APP_TIMEZONE=UTC

the php artisan commands work as expected. If I change it back to

//selected from the select box
APP_TIMEZONE=America/New_York

and then run php artisan optimize, I get the error noted below. In fact, if I change it to ANY other selection (ex. Americas/Anchorage, Europe/Amsterdam) I get the error

  Symfony\Component\Translation\Exception\InvalidArgumentException 

  Invalid "europe/amsterdam" locale.

  at vendor\symfony\translation\Translator.php:452                                                                                             
    448▕      */
    449▕     protected function assertValidLocale(string $locale): void
    450▕     {
    451▕         if (!preg_match('/^[a-z0-9@_\\.\\-]*$/i', $locale)) {
  ➜ 452▕             throw new InvalidArgumentException(\sprintf('Invalid "%s" locale.', $locale));
    453▕         }
    454▕     }
    455▕
    456▕     /**

  1   vendor\nesbot\carbon\src\Carbon\AbstractTranslator.php:160
      Symfony\Component\Translation\Translator::assertValidLocale()                                                                            

  2   vendor\nesbot\carbon\src\Carbon\AbstractTranslator.php:254

Does this trigger any other thoughts?

martinbean

Level 80

@Rretzko You’re clearly changing the locale, not the timezone!

The error message tells you as such:

Invalid "europe/amsterdam" locale.

So again:

Set APP_LOCALE=en_US
Set APP_TIMEZONE=UTC
Run php artisan optimize:clear
Paste error if you still get one after the above steps

Level 15

Hi All - Thanks for the response:

@ghabe: I didn't know that command, thanks. When I run it, I get this:

 [149] => America/Monterrey
    [150] => America/Montevideo
    [151] => America/Montserrat
    [152] => America/Nassau
    [153] => America/New_York
    [154] => America/Nome
    [155] => America/Noronha

so I think that's set up properly. 2. @martinbean - I agree that's what the error message says, but the only property that I'm changing is the APP_TIMEZONE. This works:

APP_DEBUG=true
APP_TIMEZONE=UTC
APP_URL=http://localhost

APP_LOCALE=en_US
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en_US
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US

this fails:

APP_DEBUG=true
APP_TIMEZONE=America/New_York
APP_URL=http://localhost

APP_LOCALE=en_US
APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE=en_US
APP_FAKER_LOCALE=en_US

and it is this second version (after successfully clearing cache and config) that generates the error on

 php artisan optimize

   Symfony\Component\Translation\Exception\InvalidArgumentException 

  Invalid "america/new" locale.

Thanks for the continued assistance!

Level 30

@Rretzko and if with quotes?

APP_TIMEZONE='America/New_York'

Is your .env file is UTF-8 without BOM encoded?

Any hidden symbols, maybe you use strange editor?

Level 15

@glukiho nope, a straight text file and using PhpStorm.

Level 30

@Rretzko very interesting; do you have all default values here?

Hello World

Level 15

I added some extra logging in the AppServiceProvider::boot() method

public function boot(): void
    {
        Event::listen(
            SendWorkEmailVerificationListener::class,
        );
Log::info('***** app.timezone: ' . config('app.timezone'));
Log::info('***** app.locale: ' . config('app.locale'));
        Carbon::setLocale(config('app.timezone'));
...

and have these results:

[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.INFO: ***** app.timezone: America/New_York  
[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.INFO: ***** app.locale: en_US  
[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.ERROR: Invalid "america/new" locale. {"exception":"[object] (Symfony\\Component\\Translation\\Exception\\InvalidArgumentException(code: 0): Invalid \"america/new\" locale. at C:\\Users\\RickRetzko\\PhpstormProjects\\tdr2025\\vendor\\symfony\\translation\\Translator.php:452)
[stacktrace]
#0 C:\\Users\\RickRetzko\\PhpstormProjects\\tdr2025\\vendor\\nesbot\\carbon\\src\\Carbon\\AbstractTranslator.php(160): Symfony\\Component\\Translation\\Translator->assertValidLocale()

Truly odd.

Level 15

I added some extra logging in the AppServiceProvider::boot() method

public function boot(): void
    {
        Event::listen(
            SendWorkEmailVerificationListener::class,
        );
Log::info('***** app.timezone: ' . config('app.timezone'));
Log::info('***** app.locale: ' . config('app.locale'));
        Carbon::setLocale(config('app.timezone'));

...

and have these results:

[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.INFO: ***** app.timezone: America/New_York  
[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.INFO: ***** app.locale: en_US  
[2025-08-29 10:20:13] local.ERROR: Invalid "america/new" locale. {"exception":"[object] (Symfony\\Component\\Translation\\Exception\\InvalidArgumentException(code: 0): Invalid \"america/new\" locale. at C:\\Users\\RickRetzko\\PhpstormProjects\\tdr2025\\vendor\\symfony\\translation\\Translator.php:452)
[stacktrace]
#0 C:\\Users\\RickRetzko\\PhpstormProjects\\tdr2025\\vendor\\nesbot\\carbon\\src\\Carbon\\AbstractTranslator.php(160): Symfony\\Component\\Translation\\Translator->assertValidLocale()

Truly odd.

@glukinho - Here's my clip:

bom image

Level 30

If you create new laravel project in new folder with composer create-project laravel/laravel and edit .env same way there - will you get any errors?

Best Answer

Level 30

By the way, what is it? Why you are setting timezone as locale? These are different things.

Carbon::setLocale(config('app.timezone'));

Level 15

@glukinho - BINGO! You found it. I must have mistakenly typed this into the AppServiceProvider and just couldn't see the error. I changed this to:

Carbon::setLocale(config('app.locale');

and the system is working as expected with the timezone set to America/New_York. Thank you for this line of questioning and troubleshooting! Rick

1 like

Level 30

@Rretzko good luck :)