How to change character encoding via .htaccess

If instead of a website you see some hieroglyphic gibberish — you might have enabled a wrong character encoding system. You can change it in the .htaccess file.

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How to change character encoding via .htaccess

1. 1. 1. Log into cPanel
      2. On the dashboard, click on File manager.
      3. Go to the public_html folder.
      4. By default, .htaccess is hidden. So click the Settings button and check the Show hidden files (dotfiles) mark.
      5. Now click on .htaccess and click Edit. 
      6. Add at the beginning of the file:
         AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 – if you want UTF-8 encoding
         AddDefaultCharset WINDOWS-1250 – if you want Windows-1250
      7. After you are done with the file, click on Save changes.

You also should check which encoding is being used in your database.

How to change the encoding in the database

1. 1. 1. Log into cPanel.
      2. On the dashboard, under Databases, click on phpMyAdmin.
      3. Click on your website’s database to the left.
      4. Click on Operations.
      5. Under Collation, select the encoding you are using on the website.
      6. Click Go.

Now clean your browser’s cache by pressing Ctrl+F5 and check whether your website is displayed correctly.