Fix CSV encoding for a contact list

A contact list can look fine in one program and show garbled names in another. Accented letters may turn into strings such as José, or a name may contain a replacement symbol like �. If you clean the list before fixing the encoding, you can accidentally save the damaged text over the good original.

Keep an untouched copy, identify what the characters are telling you, and choose the right import setting before editing. Once the names display correctly, you can use the CSV Editor to find, edit, sort, and remove duplicate rows in your browser.

Check and clean the contact list

1. Open the CSV Editor and open a copy of your contact CSV. Keep the original file unchanged until you have checked the cleaned copy.
2. Look across the name and email columns. Check whether accented names, apostrophes, and symbols display normally, and confirm that the columns still line up under the correct headers.
3. Search for suspicious text such as Ã, Â, ’, or �. These patterns can point to an encoding problem, but check the actual names before making changes.
4. If the text is readable, use the CSV Editor to find and correct specific records, sort the list, and remove duplicate rows. Check that email addresses and phone numbers remain in the correct columns.
5. If names are already garbled, stop before editing or saving. Reopen the untouched original with a different text encoding, or export it again from the source system with UTF-8 selected.

A CSV is plain text arranged in rows and columns. Its encoding tells a program how to turn the saved bytes into letters and symbols. The file can still have the correct rows and columns while the names display incorrectly.

What the result means

Names display correctly, including accents

The file is being read with a compatible encoding. You can continue the contact cleanup, but preserve the original and check a few records after saving. A successful preview does not prove that another program will import the file the same way.

Text looks like José instead of José

This often means UTF-8 text was interpreted as Windows-1252 or another Western encoding. The file may still contain the right characters. Reopen the original with UTF-8 rather than replacing the visible characters by hand.

Names contain � or question marks

A replacement symbol can appear when a program cannot decode a byte sequence. If the file was saved after the characters became � or ?, the original letters may no longer be present. Go back to the source export or an earlier backup instead of trying to guess each name.

Names look right, but columns or phone numbers change

That is likely a separate import or formatting issue. Commas and quotation marks affect how CSV columns are separated. Phone numbers may also be treated as numeric values, which can remove leading zeros. Encoding changes alone do not fix either problem.

How to fix the encoding

1. Return to the untouched file. If you have already opened and saved a garbled version, do not use it as the repair source. Make a fresh copy of the original export or backup.
2. Export from the source as UTF-8. If the contact service or address book offers an encoding choice, select UTF-8 and export a new CSV. This is usually safer than trying to repair damaged text after saving.
3. Choose the encoding when importing. If you are using a spreadsheet program, import the CSV rather than double-clicking it. In Excel for Windows, use Data › From Text/CSV, then choose UTF-8, often labeled 65001, as the file origin if that option appears. Preview names before loading the data.
4. Try a legacy encoding only when needed. If UTF-8 still looks wrong and the file came from an older system, try Windows-1252 or a Western European encoding in the import preview. Use the option that displays several known names correctly, not just one. Then save a new copy and inspect it again.
5. Keep phone numbers as text. During import, set phone-number columns to text if the program offers that choice. This helps preserve leading zeros and symbols such as a plus sign. Do the same for postal codes or contact IDs that are not meant for arithmetic.
6. Clean duplicates after the text is readable. Use the CSV Editor to find repeated email addresses or names, then review the matching rows before removing duplicates. Two people can share a name, so do not delete records based on a name match alone.

Encoding names are not always displayed consistently across programs. UTF-8 is the usual choice for modern exports and supports a wide range of languages. Windows-1252 is common in older files created for Western European languages. If you do not know the source encoding, use an export preview and compare a few entries you can verify.

Keep the cleanup safe

Before replacing your working contact list, compare the cleaned copy with the original. Check the number of rows, the column headings, several accented names, and a few phone numbers with leading zeros. If an important name still appears damaged, return to the source rather than correcting a large number of records by guesswork.

The CSV Editor works in your browser, and files you open stay on your device.