French/other translations showing "@" and "Ã" characters incorrectly

This thread is resolved. Here is a description of the problem and solution.

Problem:
You are experiencing incorrect unicode characters ('@' and 'Ã') on the live product pages of your website, although these issues do not appear in the WPML Translator.
Solution:
We recommend checking the collation of your database tables and their columns. Ensure they are set to

utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci

. This setting supports a wider range of characters and should resolve the incorrect character display on your live pages. For more details on handling text issues, you can visit our FAQ: https://wpml.org/faq/texts-showing-as/

If this solution does not apply to your case, or if it seems outdated, we highly recommend opening a new support ticket. Also, check related known issues at https://wpml.org/known-issues/, verify the version of the permanent fix, and confirm that you have installed the latest versions of themes and plugins. For further assistance, please contact us through our support forum: WPML Support Forum.

This is the technical support forum for WPML - the multilingual WordPress plugin.

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Tagged: Exception, Not WPML issue

This topic contains 4 replies, has 1 voice.

Last updated by Andrey 2 months, 1 week ago.

Assisted by: Andrey.

Author	Posts
April 10, 2025 at 3:54 pm #16919716
anneE-3	Background of the issue: I am trying to correct an issue that has begun to appear on product pages on the site where the unicode formatting appears to be incorrect. In the actual WPML Translator, the issue doesn't seem to be happening, but on the actual live page, I am seeing incorrect characters in the product tabs. Link to a page where the issue can be seen: hidden link Symptoms: French/other translations showing '@' and 'Ã' characters incorrectly on the live page. Questions: Why are incorrect characters appearing on the live page but not in the WPML Translator? How can I fix the unicode formatting issue on the product pages?
April 10, 2025 at 3:57 pm #16919723
anneE-3	Apologies, I was unavailable for the live chat, but I still need assistance with this issue.
April 10, 2025 at 6:24 pm #16920263
Andrey WPML Supporter since 06/2013 Languages: English (English ) Russian (Русский ) Timezone: Europe/Kyiv (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for contacting WPML support. I reviewed the product page, but I couldn't find the character issue you described. I want to share some helpful information: if you're seeing those characters, it may indicate that the collation of some database tables does not support certain characters. This issue could occur even without the WPML plugin. You must ensure that your database tables and their columns are set to the collation utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci. If you do this, the issue is unlikely to occur again. Some general information: https://wpml.org/faq/texts-showing-as/
April 11, 2025 at 6:18 pm #16924170
anneE-3	Hello Andrey, All the relevant database tables are set to utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci. Still seeing the issue. Please refer to the page below again, make sure you're looking at the french translation, and look at the tabs section. hidden link Also, I want to note, the actual translation in the WPML Translation Editor are fine, its only the final displayed result on the page that are incorrect.
April 14, 2025 at 1:58 pm #16929979
Andrey WPML Supporter since 06/2013 Languages: English (English ) Russian (Русский ) Timezone: Europe/Kyiv (GMT+03:00)	Thank you for your feedback. I now see the issue. Could you clarify if you re-save the translation and are still seeing this problem? Try to update the page translation. Please modify the original page slightly, save it, navigate to the WPML translation editor, and complete the translation. If this is still the issue, I need to request temporary access (wp-admin and FTP) to your site—preferably to a test site where the problem has been replicated if possible—in order to be of better help. When you log in to leave your next reply, you will find the needed fields below the comment area. The information you will enter is private, meaning only you and I can see and access it.