Title: language problem
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# language problem

 *  [wordcompress](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordcompress/)
 * (@wordcompress)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/language-problem-4/)
 * HI all
    im new here and to word press too.
 * im using wp 2.8 English but now i want to post
    Arabic text in posts and pages.
   i cannot read or write Arabic im trying to help a friend to get the site working
   properly.
 * the problem
    when i add a new post or page wp appears to accept the Arabic text
   but most times after an hour to a few days all the Arabic text will suddenly 
   change to “???????????”
 * usually what happens is he have to go through the
    posts and rewrite the Arabic
   text again, so on one occasion i backed up the whole site, when i had it perfect.
   when the problem appeared i restored wp, sql and contents but the result was 
   the same the Arabic text showed as “?????????”
 * this is now becoming annoying and hence why i have come
    here for some much needed
   help.
 * what is it that i need to do in order to have the Arabic text
    stored and displayed
   correctly on the site.
 * Thank you in advance

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/language-problem-4/#post-1392526)
 * Have you tried:
 * – deactivating **all** plugins to see if this resolves the problem? If this works,
   re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).
 * – switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-related problems?
 * – [resetting the plugins folder](http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_Troubleshooting#How_to_deactivate_all_plugins_when_not_able_to_access_the_administrative_menus.3F)
   by FTP or phpMyAdmin? Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause
   problems.
 *  Thread Starter [wordcompress](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wordcompress/)
 * (@wordcompress)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/language-problem-4/#post-1392639)
 * thanks esmi
    i tried your suggestions before but the result is the same. i looked
   into my hosting webspace im using cpanel, linux box. using phpmyadmin i notice
   that the “???????????” are there too. within the meta post tables
 * so this is my logic since WP reads text from a database im
    now assuming that
   anything WP reads will naturally throw to the screen.
 * so another question is what do i need to set my database to
    so that it understands
   Arabian characters ?
 * for example windows notepad or wordpad by default on a english
    installation 
   does not understand Arabian characters. but if you downlaod notepad++ and set
   the encoding to “Encode in UTF withou BOM” then it will understand.
 * i got a feeling i need to do that to the database but i cant see
    that particular
   setting there.
 * please can anyone help me out who uses WP English but have post and
    navigation
   bar in another language as i am really struggling here
 * thanks
    WCP
 *  [Naoko Takano](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nao/)
 * (@nao)
 * [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/language-problem-4/#post-1392655)
 * Is your database character set utf8?
    If not, you’ll need to convert it following
   the instructions on here: [http://codex.wordpress.org/Converting_Database_Character_Sets](http://codex.wordpress.org/Converting_Database_Character_Sets)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘language problem’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Arabic](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/arabic/)
 * [language](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/language/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Naoko Takano](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nao/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/language-problem-4/#post-1392655)
 * Status: not resolved

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