Cannot change region (locale) on MBP running OS X 10.9.2 I'm running OS X 10.9.2 on a MacBook Pro (Mid-2012) and cannot change its region (locale) via System Preferences -&gt; Language &amp; Region:

Changing it ostensibly works, but revisiting the preferences pane later shows the region reverted to its previous value.

In terms of what tools and apps report, the story is inconsistent:


defaults read -g AppleLocale does show the NEW locale
locale, by contrast, shows the PREVIOUS locale
Similarly, Calendar.app shows holidays from the PREVIOUS locale


Thus, for the most part, the system behaves as if the region changes was ineffective - which is at least consistent with the preferences pane reverting to the previous value.

Here's what I've tried:


Reset the NVRAM
Repaired the disk with Disk Utility
Booted into single-user mode and ran fsck -yf
Cleared most caches with OnyX
Checked the syslog for telltale entries


All to no avail.

Any help is appreciated.
Is there maybe an AppleLocale key in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.*.plist? That would override the key in ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist.