Chinese characters sometimes display as mojibake

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Chinese characters sometimes display as mojibake

I would say about 75% of the time I open iTunes, Chinese characters (of songs, albums, etc.) display fine. But the other 25% of the time, they display as empty boxes. The annoying thing is that it seems completely random whether Chinese characters display correctly: it could go from working one day to not working the next and then suddenly working again a day later. As far as I can tell, I haven't touched any font/localization options in Windows, so I don't know what is causing this behavior.

Windows 7

Posted on Mar 9, 2012 6:23 PM

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Answer 1

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wiclee

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Mar 9, 2012 6:34 PM in response to Tony1337

Try this:

Go to Control Panel, Fonts.

On the left pane click "Font settings" > uncheck "Hide fonts based on language settings", Click "Ok" at the bottom. Restart you computer just to be sure the setting went through. See if that helps.

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Answer 2

Tony1337 Author

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Mar 13, 2012 8:31 PM in response to wiclee

I did that, and it's been working for a few days without problem. I'll see how it holds up over time.

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Answer 3

wiclee

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Mar 13, 2012 8:44 PM in response to Tony1337

That should work as it helps other user with Korean characters as well.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3739309

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Answer 4

Tony1337 Author

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Mar 28, 2012 7:58 PM in response to wiclee

The problem is back. 😟

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Answer 5

wiclee

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Mar 28, 2012 9:55 PM in response to Tony1337

Try this one:

Highlight all the songs with boxes, right mouse click and select "Edit ID 3Tags...". Check the box "Reverse Unicode", then OK.

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Answer 6

Tony1337 Author

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Apr 10, 2012 1:40 AM in response to wiclee

I can't find that option. Maybe it can only be found on older versions of iTunes?

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Answer 7

agp423

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Jun 12, 2013 8:22 AM in response to Tony1337

Sorry for bringing up an old post... The method of unchecking "Hide fonts based on language settings." works after a restart. However, if I restart my computer again, the characters are changed back to squares, so I have to check "Hide fonts based on language settings," restart, then can I see the characters again.

Also, iTunes' Convert ID3 tag -> reverse unicode does not work. It just changes squares to other random shapes and characters.

Does anyone have a permanent fix for this?

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