Common in Windows exports and older Chinese business systems.
CSV / EXCEL · GARBLED TEXT
Chinese characters
look broken in Excel?
The file is often readable, but Excel is using the wrong source encoding. Preview the CSV, choose GBK, Big5 or another encoding, then download an Excel-friendly UTF-8 BOM file.
Open the CSV fixerCommon signs of an encoding mismatch
If Chinese text turns into question marks, replacement characters, or strings such as Ã, æ, or other unexpected symbols, the CSV may be decoded with the wrong character set.
Often used by older Traditional Chinese software and exports.
A practical output choice when the file needs to open cleanly in Excel.
Preview before you download
Upload the file, compare the preview with the original data, and only then download the converted CSV. If the preview is still wrong, switch the source encoding manually.
A converter can fix a decoding mismatch. It cannot recover characters that were already replaced with ? or � in the original file.
Need the Chinese guide?
See the guides for Excel CSV UTF-8 BOM, GBK to UTF-8 CSV, or Big5 to UTF-8 CSV.