What does #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND mean?

The Localization package looked up a key in the active locale’s string table and didn’t find it. Either the key is mistyped, the locale’s table is missing the entry, or the table itself isn’t loaded. Open the table in Localization Tables editor to verify the key exists for that locale.

How do I set a fallback locale?

In each Locale asset, set Fallback Locale to your primary (usually English). When the active locale lacks a key, the package looks it up in the fallback before returning ENTRY_NOT_FOUND.

Fix: Unity Localization String Table Missing Key

Q: Why does locale switching produce ENTRY_NOT_FOUND temporarily?

Locale switch is async — the new table needs to load. Until it’s ready, lookups fail. Either await LocalizationSettings.InitializationOperation or subscribe to OnSelectedLocaleChanged and update UI only after the event fires.

Quick answer: Set Fallback Locale on each Locale asset. Await LocalizationSettings.InitializationOperation before reading strings. Audit tables for missing keys via the Localization Tables editor.

A localized button label shows #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND: button.start in French, but works in English. The key exists; the French translator added a placeholder; somewhere between authoring and runtime the lookup failed.

Where Lookups Fail

Localization lookup steps:

Active Locale selected.
String Table for that locale loaded.
Key looked up in the table.
If missing: check Fallback Locale’s table.
Still missing: return #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND.

Failure can be at any layer.

Fix 1: Verify Key Exists per Locale

Open Window → Asset Management → Localization Tables. Select your String Table Collection. The matrix shows every key across every locale. Missing entries are highlighted. Fill in or leave blank (fallback kicks in).

Fix 2: Set Fallback Locale

Select each Locale asset:

Locale (French):
  Identifier: fr
  Fallback Locale: English

Lookups in French that fail to find a key now retry in English. Better than displaying #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND to users.

Fix 3: Wait for Initialization

using UnityEngine.Localization.Settings;

IEnumerator Start()
{
    yield return LocalizationSettings.InitializationOperation;
    string label = LocalizationSettings.StringDatabase.GetLocalizedString("UI", "button.start");
    button.text = label;
}

Without the yield, lookup may run before the locale’s table is loaded. The result is #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND even though the key exists.

Fix 4: Subscribe to Locale Change

For runtime language switching:

LocalizationSettings.SelectedLocaleChanged += locale =>
{
    RefreshAllLocalizedText();
};

RefreshAllLocalizedText re-queries every active string after the locale change finishes. Caching the previous value and updating only on event avoids the transient #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND during switch.

Build Inclusion

String Tables only ship in builds if they’re referenced by something or marked Always-Cook. In Player Settings → Publishing, verify Localization Assets are included via Addressables groups, or add tables to Preloaded Assets.

Verifying

Switch language at runtime. Watch the Console for #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND warnings. Should be zero. UI labels update to the new language. Network of fallbacks: if a translator hasn’t translated a key yet, you see English (or your primary) instead of broken text.

“Localization needs fallback + init wait + complete tables. Each layer is a place where #ENTRY_NOT_FOUND lives.”

Add a CI step that runs a script extracting all keys used in code and checking they exist in every locale — catches translator omissions early.