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Change Encoding

Change File Encoding

Fix garbled text by converting your file to the correct UTF-8 encoding. Select the original encoding of your file to see the correct preview.

Upload a text file (CSV, TXT, etc.)

About Change Encoding

Fix garbled text (mojibake) by converting any text file (CSV, TXT) to the proper UTF-8 encoding.

Have you ever opened a file and seen "L'été" instead of "L'été", or question marks "????" where special characters should be? This is a classic character encoding problem.

Most modern systems expect data in UTF-8 format, but many programs (especially older ones or on Windows) save files using different encodings like WINDOWS-1252 or ISO-8859-1.

This tool fixes that instantly. It lets you specify the original encoding of your file and correctly converts it to the universally compatible UTF-8 format, ensuring all your characters appear exactly as they should.

Category: Cleaning & Preparation

Common Use Cases

  • Fixing CSVs exported from old systems or specific Excel versions
  • Standardizing text files before importing into a database or analysis tool
  • Correcting files that show garbled characters like é, Â, or ?
  • Ensuring cross-platform compatibility of text files between Windows, macOS, and Linux

Key Features

  • Supports common encodings like WINDOWS-1252, ISO-8859-1, MacRoman, and more.
  • Converts any text-based file: CSV, TSV, TXT, etc.
  • Provides an instant preview of the corrected text.
  • 100% client-side processing for maximum privacy. Your files are never uploaded.
  • Outputs a clean, universally compatible UTF-8 file.

The Change Encoding tool is compatible with: Legacy Systems, Windows Exports, Database Imports.

Once the file is converted to clean UTF-8, run it through Ghost Scrub to catch any leftover invisible characters, or Super Fix if the structure itself (delimiters, row alignment) still looks off.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is character encoding?

Character encoding is a system that tells a computer how to interpret the raw bytes of a text file into readable characters. If a file is saved with one encoding (like WINDOWS-1252) and opened with another (like UTF-8), characters can appear corrupted. This tool standardizes your file to UTF-8, which is the most widely accepted standard.

Why do I see strange characters like 'é' in my file?

This is a classic symptom of an encoding mismatch, often called 'mojibake'. It happens when a file is saved in one encoding but read as if it were in another. For example, a character like 'é' might be stored as one byte in an old encoding but interpreted as two different, incorrect characters in UTF-8. Our tool fixes this by correctly reading the original encoding and converting it properly.

A must for teams importing data across systems, countries, or legacy software that don't agree on a single character encoding.

Read the related guide →