How often have you encountered problems with character encoding in WordPress? If you answered yes, then you should read this article.
In order to ensure that your site displays properly across various browsers and devices, you need to take care of character encoding issues. This is because some characters might get displayed incorrectly or not at all.
WordPress has its own built-in functions to handle character encoding issues. However, these functions aren’t perfect. That’s why you need to check out these solutions.
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What Character Encoding is in WordPress?
Character encoding refers to the process of converting a string from one format to another. For example, if you want to convert an English text into Japanese, then you need to use Unicode conversion.
If you are using UTF-8 as your character encoding method, then you don’t need to worry about it. However, if you are using Windows 1252 or ISO 8859-1, then you will face many problems.
WordPress uses UTF-8 by default. But there are times when you might encounter other character encodings such as Windows 1252 or ISO8859-1.
Reasons For WordPress Character Encoding Issue
There can be several reasons for encountering character encoding issues in WordPress. Some of them include:
- Your server doesn’t support Unicode.
- You are uploading files in different languages.
- Your database stores data in non-Unicode formats.
- You are using plugins that do not provide proper support for character encoding.
- You are using third-party applications that store data in non-Uniform Binary Format (UNIFORM_BINARY).
Most of the time character encoding issues arise when you change your web host.
Fixing The Character Encoding Problem in WordPress
The first step toward fixing the problem is to identify which character encoding you are currently using. You can do so by checking the following settings:
1) Comment out the two lines in the wp-config.
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', '');Now it should look like the following:
//define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
//define('DB_COLLATE', '');2) Upload the updated wp-config file to your web host while overwriting the existing file with the same name.
4) Check your site again. It should be working now.
This character encoding issue can occur even after an upgrade to the database, so don’t forget this trick just in case. If an issue has arisen because of a database error, it must be fixed now.
If this solution did not work for you, you can try the following method to fix it.
You just need to edit the ./wp-includes/wp-db.php file. This file is located inside the WordPress root directory->wp-includes. Go to line 1522 and insert the following code immediately after it.
“SET NAMES utf8” This line should be added at the end of the file that connects to the database. This line converts accented characters to their Unicode equivalents.
mysql_query(“SET NAMES ‘utf8′”);
Adding the line will fix the character encoding problem in your WordPress site.
Conclusion
You can fix the character encoding problem in WordPress easily. All you need to do is follow the steps mentioned above. These steps will help you fix the problem without any hassle.
A lot of people are still wondering how they can make their website
About The Author
Shahzad Ahmad Mirza
Shahzad Ahmad Mirza is a web developer, entrepreneur, and trainer based in Lahore, Pakistan. He started his career in 2000 and founded his web development agency, Designs Valley, in 2012. Mirza also runs a YouTube channel, “Learn With Shahzad Ahmad Mirza,” where he shares his web programming and internet marketing expertise. He has trained over 50,000 students, many of whom have become successful digital marketers, programmers, and freelancers. He also created the GBOB (Guest Blog Posting Business) course, which teaches individuals how to make money online.
