Why accented letters look broken in your CSV

When "ş", "ğ", "é" or "ñ" turn into strings like "é" or "ÅŸ", the file usually isn't damaged. The program that opened it most likely read the text with a different encoding than the one it was saved in. The steps below work on a copy, so the original stays safe.

1. Keep the original, work on a copy. Duplicate the file and give the copy a clear name, for example products-copy.csv. Don't save anything over the original. If a garbled version is saved over good text, the original characters may not be recoverable.

2. Work out which encoding the file was saved with. Look at the pattern: common Turkish letters turning into two-character sequences often mean UTF-8 text was read as a legacy Western encoding. Question marks or "�" symbols often mean the reverse, or that characters were already lost when the file was saved.

Open the copy in a plain-text editor. Many editors show the encoding in a status bar or in an "open with encoding" option. If the editor lets you reopen the copy with a chosen encoding, try a few. The one where every special letter looks right is a strong hint about the original encoding. It is a hint, not a guarantee, so check several rows, not just one.

3. Save the copy as UTF-8. Once the text looks correct, use "Save as" or "Save with encoding" and choose UTF-8. Some spreadsheet apps recognise UTF-8 more reliably when the file starts with a byte order mark. If your editor offers a "UTF-8 with BOM" option and the copy still looks wrong in one app, you can try that variant. Behaviour differs between apps, so treat this as something to test.

4. Reopen the copy and check it. Open the saved copy again, ideally in the app where the problem first appeared. Compare a handful of rows against the original: special letters, row count, and that each value is still in its own column. If the letters still look wrong, return to step 2. Don't repair characters by hand. Retyping them row by row is slow and easy to get wrong, and it doesn't fix why the file was read incorrectly.

After saving, the free CSV check can be used to look at the copy's file structure again, such as columns and rows. It does not check character encoding, so keep verifying the letters yourself in step 4.