Why does Excel show Ã© instead of é in my CSV file?

This happens when a UTF-8 encoded file is opened as if it were Windows-1252. The two bytes representing é in UTF-8 are read as two separate characters, producing Ã©. Use the Data > From Text/CSV import and select UTF-8 to fix the display.

How do I open a CSV file with UTF-8 encoding in Excel?

Go to the Data tab, click From Text/CSV, select your file, and then choose '65001: Unicode (UTF-8)' from the File Origin drop-down. This tells Excel to interpret the file as UTF-8, so accented characters display correctly.

Can I recover data if the characters were replaced with question marks?

No. If a file was saved with the wrong encoding and characters were replaced with '?', the original data is lost and cannot be recovered from the CSV. You would need to go back to the original .xlsx file and re-export it using the UTF-8 option.

What is the difference between 'CSV (Comma delimited)' and 'CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)' in Excel?

'CSV (Comma delimited)' uses the local code page, which may not support all characters. 'CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)' saves the file as UTF-8, which supports all Unicode characters. Choose the UTF-8 option to preserve accents.

Garbled Characters in CSV Files in Excel: Fixing UTF-8

Open a CSV in Excel and see Ã© where é should be. The cause is a character-set mismatch. UTF-8 data gets read as Windows-1252. The fix does not touch the source file. And you can stop it happening again.

Why Excel Shows Garbled Characters Like Ã©

CSV files with accented letters such as é, ü, or ñ are usually saved in UTF-8, a character set that covers every script. Excel misreads that byte sequence when it defaults to a single-byte code page like Windows-1252. The two bytes that represent é in UTF-8 become two separate characters: Ã©. The source file is fine. The display is wrong because the wrong character set was applied.

Double-click a CSV to open it and Excel uses your system's locale code page, often Windows-1252. Accents scramble. Understand that distinction and you are halfway to fixing it.

How to Import a CSV File with the Correct Character Set

Do not double-click. Use Excel's import tool and pick the character set yourself. The source file stays untouched.

Open Excel and go to the Data tab.
Click From Text/CSV and select your CSV file.
In the import dialog, find the File Origin drop-down.
Choose 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
Click Load. The data displays correctly.

This is the reliable way to bring UTF-8 CSV content into Excel. It works with or without a byte order mark because you are telling Excel which character set to use.

What a Byte Order Mark Does

A BOM is a special byte sequence (EF BB BF) at the start of a UTF-8 file. Excel sees it and detects the character set automatically. No BOM, and Excel may fall back to the local code page. Garbled display. When you import manually and select UTF-8, the BOM is irrelevant.

How to Save a CSV File as UTF-8 in Excel

Creating a CSV from an Excel workbook and need accents intact? Choose the right save option. Excel's Save As dialog offers two CSV formats:

CSV (Comma delimited), Uses the local code page (Windows-1252, for example) and may drop characters.
CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited), Saves as UTF-8, which supports every Unicode character.

Always pick CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) when sharing files that contain non-ASCII characters. Open that file later in Excel, or any program that respects UTF-8, and accents appear correctly. That single choice stops the Ã© problem before it starts.

What to Do If the Data is Already Garbled

Saved a file with the wrong character set and reopened it? The damage may be permanent. When a file is saved in a single-byte set, characters that cannot be represented get replaced with a question mark (?). That replacement is irreversible. The lost characters cannot be recovered from the CSV file itself.

Go back to the Excel workbook (the .xlsx file) and re-export it using the UTF-8 option. No .xlsx? You must manually correct the data or get a fresh copy. Keep the .xlsx as the master. Treat CSV as an export format. CSV stores no formatting, no formulas, no multiple sheets.

Preventing Future Character-Set Problems

Adopt a consistent workflow and garbled characters stop appearing:

Keep the .xlsx file as your master version.
When exporting to CSV, use the CSV UTF-8 option.
When opening a CSV, use Data > From Text/CSV and select 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) if the file does not open correctly.
If you share files, tell recipients the file is UTF-8 so they can open it with the correct character set.

These steps work on Excel for Windows or Mac. They apply to other spreadsheet programs too. Receive a garbled CSV? The import method reads it correctly without altering the data.

Google Sheets and UTF-8

Google Sheets reads and writes CSV files as UTF-8 by default. Upload a UTF-8 CSV and it displays correctly. Download a CSV from Google Sheets and it comes out as UTF-8. That is good. But double-click that downloaded file in Excel and you might see garbled characters if the file lacks a BOM. Use the import method. Specify UTF-8.

Character-Set Trouble Vs. File Corruption

A garbled display does not mean the file is broken. It means the software is using the wrong character set. Understand the difference between UTF-8 and Windows-1252, use the correct import and export settings, and most display problems resolve fast. But if you already saved a file with the wrong character set and characters turned into question marks, that data is gone. No tool recovers information that was never stored.

If you are dealing with a corrupted or unreadable Excel file, the tools at xls.repair may help recover the underlying data. For character-set issues, the solutions above are the direct fix.