# JabRef 5.15 opens bib files with Shift\_JIS encoding instead of UTF-8

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [December 29, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369 "2024-12-29T02:38:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mkaster](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/mkaster/32/2123_2.png) [@mkaster](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/mkaster)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/1 "2024-12-29T02:38:49Z")

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Recently I installed the latest official version (5.15) and opened a .bib file. For my surprise, many characters were unreadable. Then I discovered that JabRef is ?detecting? wrongly the encoding as “Shift\_JIS” instead of “UTF-8”, despite the file is _really_ saved in UTF-8 encoding by other text editors, like Sublime Text.

 ![jabref-5.15-open shift-JIS](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/2X/a/a3462ef6792eb46e7ef89f8eff03c17febe52a0b.png)

I decided to test many previous portable versions and discovered the problem started at version 5.7.

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**Author:** ![mkaster](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/mkaster/32/2123_2.png) [@mkaster](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/mkaster)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 2:39am UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/2 "2024-12-29T02:39:52Z")

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Next is a screen capture of the still working version 5.6, where the UTF-8 encoding is correctly assigned.

 ![jabref-5.6-open utf-8](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/2X/6/68b6f6e09b90b1c2292757d3254af2e7db9257a0.png)

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 12:38pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/3 "2024-12-29T12:38:48Z")

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Okay that is interesting, is it plain UTF8 or UTF8 with bom?

This might refer to [BOM now missing at beginning of bibliography file -- causes JabRef to not recognize existing library · Issue #9496 · JabRef/jabref · GitHub](https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/issues/9496)  
cc @koppor

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**Author:** ![koppor](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/koppor/32/5_2.png) [@koppor](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/koppor)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 4:08pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/4 "2024-12-29T16:08:39Z")

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@mkaster Can we have a copy of that file? [web@jabref.org](mailto:web@jabref.org)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mkaster](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/mkaster/32/2123_2.png) [@mkaster](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/mkaster)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 8:59pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/5 "2024-12-29T20:59:56Z")

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It is plain UTF-8 (as shown by hexed.it):

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/2X/8/873ed9fa9c13e9e66dffc8868e44f1a800fa97b7.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2024, 11:03pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/jabref-5-15-opens-bib-files-with-shift-jis-encoding-instead-of-utf-8/5369/6 "2024-12-29T23:03:18Z")

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I can reproduce it with your file.

First JabRef tries to look for the encoding header and if not present it tries to guess the char set.  
Unfortunately, the shift\_jis was the first one guessed, utf 8 the second, but both with the same confidence.