How to fix garbled subtitles
TL;DR — Fix subtitle files that show weird characters, mojibake, or broken accents by reopening the file with the correct text encoding.
Garbled subtitles usually mean the subtitle text was decoded with the wrong character encoding.
Quick answer
If a subtitle file opens with broken accents, strange symbols, or unreadable non-English text, do not edit the text by hand. Reopen the file with the likely source encoding, then save a clean UTF-8 copy.
The Subtitle Encoding Fixer is the fastest browser-local way to try common encodings.
What garbled subtitles look like
Encoding problems often look like this:
Café
Español
FrançaisThose words were probably meant to be:
Café
Español
FrançaisFor Chinese, Japanese, or Korean subtitles, the symptom is often blocks of unrelated characters instead of readable text.
Why this happens
Subtitle files are plain text files. If the file was saved as Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1, GB18030, Big5, Shift JIS, or another legacy encoding, opening it as UTF-8 can corrupt how the characters display.
The timing lines may still be fine. The problem is the text decoding step.
Step-by-step workflow
- Open the Subtitle Encoding Fixer.
- Choose the source encoding that matches where the subtitle file came from.
- Upload the subtitle file.
- Check the output preview.
- If the output still looks wrong, try another source encoding and upload the original file again.
- Download the UTF-8 version once the text looks readable.
Which encoding should you try first?
- Western European accents: try
Windows-1252, thenISO-8859-1. - Simplified Chinese subtitles: try
GB18030. - Traditional Chinese subtitles: try
Big5. - Japanese subtitles: try
Shift JIS. - Korean subtitles: try
EUC-KR. - Central European text: try
Windows-1250.
Common mistakes
Editing corrupted text manually
If the text is already garbled, manual edits are slow and easy to get wrong. Fix the encoding first.
Saving over the only copy
Keep the original file until you have confirmed the UTF-8 output works in the target editor or player.
Confusing encoding problems with format problems
If the text is readable but timestamps are malformed, read How to fix malformed SRT timestamps instead.
Related guides
Use the Subtitle Encoding Fixer
Convert subtitle files to clean UTF-8 text when captions show garbled characters or wrong accents. No signup, no upload, and everything runs locally in the browser.
Open Encoding fixer