Troubleshoot character display issues in Jira server

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Problem

Often users may have problems with certain characters in an instance. Symptoms may include:

  • Non-ASCII characters appearing as question marks (?)

  • Page links with non-ASCII characters not working

  • Single characters being displayed as two characters

  • Garbled text appearing

Resolution

Atlassian recommends UTF-8 or Unicode encoding, and case-insensitive collation. In most cases, problems are due to a misconfiguration in one of the components.

Ensure the same encoding is used across all components

The UTF-8 character encoding should be used across the database, application server and web application.

Requesting support

If there are still problems with character encoding after following the above steps, create a support request, and our support staff will aid in solving your problem.

Entering in the following details will help us to identify your problem:

  • Attach screenshots of the problem.

  • Generate a Support Zip and attach it to the ticket.

  • Copy the contents of the System Information page into the 'Description' field.

Updated on April 8, 2025

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