Title: WordPress 2.5 upgrade: Database encoding serious problems Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # WordPress 2.5 upgrade: Database encoding serious problems * Resolved [phnk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phnk/) * (@phnk) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/) * There is a serious issue with WP 2.5 RC1 as far as I can tell. My update went perfectly well but all accentuated characters are showing scrambled. [Check it here](http://phnk.com/)( written in French, hence the high frequency of such chars). * My first reflex was to blame MySQL, so I went to phpmyadmin and checked my encoding settings: * – MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) – MySQL connection collation: utf8_unicode_ci * I then blamed my personal template, but the problem subsists with the Default WP template. Argh! * What should I change to get my proper character display? Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) * [Lester Chan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gamerz/) * (@gamerz) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717292) * No idea whether this will help, [http://alexking.org/blog/2008/03/06/mysql-latin1-utf8-conversion](http://alexking.org/blog/2008/03/06/mysql-latin1-utf8-conversion) * Thread Starter [phnk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phnk/) * (@phnk) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717300) * Thanks, but I don’t think it does: my database is configured for UTF-8. Here’s a copy of my server settings: * > character set client utf8 > (Global value) latin1 character set connection utf8( > Global value) latin1 character set database latin1 character set filesystem > binary character set results utf8 (Global value) latin1 character set server > latin1 character set system utf8 character sets dir /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ > collation connection utf8_unicode_ci * It seems to me everything is well set for feeding WP with UTF-8. Help! * Thread Starter [phnk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phnk/) * (@phnk) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717301) * **Solution**: comment the DB_CHARSET line in the wp-config.php file. Found in [this comment](http://alexking.org/blog/2008/03/06/mysql-latin1-utf8-conversion#comment-61840): * > I had a similar problem on my blog and all I had to do was to add // to one > line in wp-config.php > I changed > define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′); > to > // define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′); > And everything was fine. * Your link was helpful in the end, thanks very much! Lesson: always check the comments. * [jokkesvin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jokkesvin/) * (@jokkesvin) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717502) * phnk –> You’re awesome man! This was also the solution to MY problem 🙂 I’m from Denmark, and after upgrading to 2.5, all danish characters were substituted with wrong ones. Putting // in front fixed this. I wonder why though? * [stlytm](https://wordpress.org/support/users/stlytm/) * (@stlytm) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717503) * For those of you using vDeck and have had no problems uploading WordPress 2.5, maybe you can help me. The first time I ftp to my server and tried to open the blog I got this message.”Error establishing a Data Base connection” * Now when I ftp and try to install, I get the message that my wp-config is not right. I have the same data as I did in Webpress 2.3, I logged onto vDeck and checked the files in wordpress, and seen that the files were not uploaded. When using my ftp it shows the files in the Remote site, but somehow they are not reaching my files in vDeck. for the host I put in *******.startlogic.com, I also tried the old way by putting in itsmydeal.net, neither one works. * I also just got through trying // define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8′);, but didn’t work. * So in summary, do we make changes to the wp-config that I don’t know about. I am at a loss right now. * [jokkesvin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jokkesvin/) * (@jokkesvin) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717504) * stlytm –> As far as I know you shouldn’t do anything to wp-config.php. It contains the login-info to the database. If you move the site, then you might have to change this file. I’m not sure though. * [artzja](https://wordpress.org/support/users/artzja/) * (@artzja) * [18 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717510) * I have problem like jokkesvin when I upgrade from 2.0.11 to 2.5 * thanks phnk for ur advice, it’s very useful for the other charset/language * [taoski](https://wordpress.org/support/users/taoski/) * (@taoski) * [18 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717518) * [@phnk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phnk/) * You da man! * Had the issue when upgrading to 2.5 from 2.3 * Thanks. * [flick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mosey/) * (@mosey) * [17 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717589) * Massive phew, thank you so much! 😀 Just a simple change in config worked (after the upgrade) much to my relief! * [319](https://wordpress.org/support/users/noyz319/) * (@noyz319) * [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717594) * I’m experiencing a similar error with special characters just show weird code after an upgrade from 2.3.3 to 2.5.1. I’ve tried commenting out and deleting these 2 lines, which we’re not in my old wp-config: * `define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8'′);` `define('DB_COLLATE', '');` * But when i take them out i get the following error” * “Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/content/mywebsite/ html/wp-includes/classes.php on line 92” * And all my pages and posts show page not found errors. I’ve also just tried changing it to: * `define('DB_CHARSET', 'UTF-8'′);` and `define('DB_CHARSET', ''′);` * But no luck. Any help would be very much appreciated! Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total) The topic ‘WordPress 2.5 upgrade: Database encoding serious problems’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/) * [encoding](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/encoding/) * [upgrade](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/upgrade/) * [utf-8](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/utf-8/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 10 replies * 8 participants * Last reply from: [319](https://wordpress.org/support/users/noyz319/) * Last activity: [17 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-25-upgrade-database-encoding-serious-problems/#post-717594) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics