Latin1 to UTF-8MB4 - MySQL Database Migration

Convert MySQL latin1 data to utf8mb4. Fix emoji and special character issues during database migration. Browser-based, private.

Input (Latin1)

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TXT, CSV, SQL from MySQL exports

Or paste text directly:

Output (UTF-8MB4)

MySQL Character Set Migration

Latin1 was MySQL's default for decades but cannot store emoji or multilingual text. UTF8MB4 is the modern standard supporting all Unicode characters. Use this tool to convert exported data during database migrations.

Common sources: mysqldump exports, CSV exports from legacy applications, WordPress database backups, and legacy PHP application data.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Latin1 (ISO-8859-1) was MySQL's default character set for decades. It's a single-byte encoding supporting Western European characters but cannot store emoji, Asian characters, or many special symbols. Many legacy databases still use latin1, causing issues when users try to insert modern content.

UTF8MB4 is MySQL's full UTF-8 implementation supporting all Unicode characters including emoji and 4-byte characters. The older MySQL 'utf8' (now called utf8mb3) only supports 3-byte characters. UTF8MB4 is the recommended encoding for all new MySQL databases.

You need this conversion when migrating legacy databases to modern MySQL, fixing 'Incorrect string value' errors when inserting emoji, upgrading WordPress or other CMS databases, consolidating multilingual content, or preparing databases for internationalization.

Latin1 cannot store: emoji characters (causing errors or data loss), Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters, Arabic and Hebrew text, mathematical symbols, and special Unicode characters. This breaks user-generated content with emoji and international user names.

The conversion involves: 1) Export data with proper encoding flags, 2) Convert text content (use this tool), 3) Alter table/column character sets to utf8mb4, 4) Update MySQL connection settings. Always backup before converting and test thoroughly.

Double-encoding occurs when UTF-8 text is stored in a latin1 column—the bytes are misinterpreted. You'll see sequences like 'Ã©' instead of 'é'. This tool can help identify and fix double-encoded content by properly re-interpreting the byte sequences.

Yes. Upload or paste your exported data and the tool will interpret it as latin1 bytes, then output proper UTF-8. This fixes garbled characters that appear when latin1 data is incorrectly displayed as UTF-8.

UTF8MB4 uses up to 4 bytes per character vs latin1's 1 byte. This affects index key lengths. In MySQL 5.6 with InnoDB, VARCHAR(255) with utf8mb4 exceeds the 767-byte limit. Use MySQL 5.7+ with innodb_large_prefix or reduce VARCHAR lengths.

All processing happens locally in your browser—no data is uploaded to any server. This makes it safe for testing conversions on sensitive data. However, always test thoroughly on a backup before applying changes to production databases.

This tool processes one file at a time. For batch conversion of mysqldump files, process each sequentially or use command-line tools like iconv or mysql's charset conversion options for server-side processing.

MySQL Character Set Migration

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