Fix · Forms and email

Arabic shows as ???? or strange symbols in emails or forms

Kuwait and Gulf

What you may see

The subject or name is full of question marks or strange characters

Most likely cause

Somewhere the text is saved or sent in a different character encoding than the one used to read it.

Check first (about two minutes)

Where do you see it: the email, the database, the page? The place tells which link is broken.

The fix prompt

What you type here never leaves your browser. The search runs on this page, and nothing is sent to a server or to an AI.

The exact error or what you see

What you did before it happened

Kept only in this browser, on this device. Keys and passwords are removed before anything is saved.

Prompt language

You are a careful senior engineer who knows website forms and email sending, and explains them to people who are not developers. I am not a developer, so explain every step in plain words and tell me exactly which button, menu or command you mean. If you are not sure about something, say so; do not guess.

I am in Kuwait. If the service has a Kuwait or Gulf rule or option that matters here (for example KNET, Arabic right-to-left text or local time), take it into account.

THE PROBLEM
Arabic shows as ???? or strange symbols in emails or forms

THE EXACT ERROR OR WHAT I SEE
[paste the exact error here]

WHAT I DID BEFORE IT HAPPENED
[write in a few words what you did before it happened]

MOST LIKELY CAUSE
Somewhere the text is saved or sent in a different character encoding than the one used to read it.

DO THESE STEPS, IN THIS ORDER
1. Check each link of the chain uses UTF-8: the HTML meta charset, the form encoding, the database encoding, and the email Content-Type charset.
2. Encode email subjects with UTF-8 (the email library does it when set up right).
3. Test with an Arabic name, an Arabic subject and an emoji.
Stop and tell me if what you see does not match a step. Do not skip ahead.

CHECK THAT IT WORKED
- An Arabic name and message read the same in the form, the database and the received email.
Tell me exactly what I should see on the screen when it works.

DO NOT CHANGE
- Do not convert stored data without a backup.
- Anything I did not ask about: the design, the text, other pages, other settings or the data.
- Do not delete files, data or branches, do not reset or force-push, and do not rewrite history, unless you first show me exactly what would be lost and I say yes.
- Do not paste, print or ask me to paste a password or secret key into this chat. If one is needed, tell me which settings page of the right service to store it in.

WHEN YOU FINISH
Explain in simple words what you changed (file by file or setting by setting), why you changed it, and how I can undo it.

Paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Cursor, then follow what it says.

After you tried it, did it work?

Steps

Check each link of the chain uses UTF-8: the HTML meta charset, the form encoding, the database encoding, and the email Content-Type charset.
Encode email subjects with UTF-8 (the email library does it when set up right).
Test with an Arabic name, an Arabic subject and an emoji.

Do not do this

Do not "fix" it by removing Arabic from the text.
Do not convert stored data without a backup.

Try another entry