Title: Encoding errors migrating a database from one host to another Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # Encoding errors migrating a database from one host to another * [zootropo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zootropo/) * (@zootropo) * [20 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/) * Hi. I have a problem with my wordpress based weblog at [http://mundogeek.net](http://mundogeek.net) and I would be thankful for any help you could give me to solve it. * I’m trying to move my current database to dreamhost but I have problems with the character encoding. * They have MySQL 4.1.15 at my previous host, and I used phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl3 to make the backup. phpMyAdmin says the MySQL charset is UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) and MySQL connection collation utf8_general_ci. * Then, on the tables of the database it says the collation is latin1_swedish_ci. Don’t know why. * If I open, say, wp_posts in phpMyAdmin with UTF8 as charset selected in the browser, I see some strange characters instead of accents and the spanish special characters. So I don’t know if the charset is truly UTF8, but WordPress options are set to use UTF8 and when I open my weblog it seems to be okay. * Then I copied all my files to dreamhost and used ‘source dump.sql’ at the mysql command line to import the backup into the new database. * Dreamhost seems to use MySQL 4.1.14 with phpMyAdmin 2.6.4-pl3. MySQL charset is UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) and MySQL connection collation utf8_general_ci, as in my previous host. * When I open my weblog now that I moved to dreamhost I see strange characters. And if I open phpMyAdmin I see strange characters too, but they are not the same as the ones I saw when I opened phpMyAdmin in my previous host. For example where“ espía” (spy) should be readed I see “espÃÂa” in Dreamhost’s phpMyAdmin and“ espÃa” in my previous host. * So, please, do anybody know some reason for this to happen? Can this be a wordpress bug? MySQL’s? a collation problem? some mistake I made? * Thank you so much Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * Thread Starter [zootropo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zootropo/) * (@zootropo) * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286516) * Anyone? I asked DreamHost’s support but it has been 2 days already and I still don’t have any answer. * [Mark (podz)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/podz/) * (@podz) * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286532) * It’s a character encoding problem. * Try this (I’m assuming you are on Windows) Download and install notepad++ [http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm](http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm) * Use that to open your sql file Find a faulty character – just check what it looks like Now Select All Then from the Format menu, choose ‘Encode in UTF-8’ If there is a change to the faulty character, the sql file is wrong If there is not a change the new db is wrong * If the sql file is wrong, Save the newly encoded sql file and re-import. * If it’s the db, post back and we’ll see how to move forward. * Thread Starter [zootropo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zootropo/) * (@zootropo) * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286541) * Thank you for taking the time to try to help me podz. * I opened the sql file in Notepad++ and I can see strange characters with ANSI format. Then I try to convert it to UTF-8 but even when the characters are not the same they are wrong too. * I tried importing this new sql file anyway just to be sure but it doesn’t seem to improve. * does it make any sense to you? 🙁 * [evaki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/evaki/) * (@evaki) * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286710) * I have exactly the same problem…! * I have backed up some tables from the database (collation utf8_general_ci) just in case I screw something up -which I did- and when I try to import the tables from the backup all the characters are symbols! * The problem I think lies in the backing up proccess… The database exports the. sql file in a I-don’t-know-what encoding! I tried opening the .sql file with all sorts of processors (including notepad++) but the characters appear as symbols… * Is there a way to fix it or should I have to put all the data by hand again? 🙁 * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286711) * This is a MySQL bug! For a fix see this post: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/55282?replies=10#post-303707](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/55282?replies=10#post-303707) Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘Encoding errors migrating a database from one host to another’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [characters](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/characters/) * [collation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/collation/) * [encoding](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/encoding/) * [MySQL](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/mysql/) * [utf8](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/utf8/) * In: [Installing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/) * 5 replies * 4 participants * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * Last activity: [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/encoding-errors-migrating-a-database-from-one-host-to-another/#post-286711) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics