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SFTP connector and special characters in csv file

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Posted on by Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee

Hi!

I have encountered an issue when files are copied with the SFTP connector from a sharepoint site to a SFTP server with special characters in csv files. It seems this has started suddenly from somewhere around end of March 2019. At least one special character it changes is á to ï¿½ instead.

This same flow also moves the file from one place to another after the SFTP connector on the sharepoint site and the file is ok when that is done.

Here is the flow:

2019-05-06 14_57_01-Edit your flow _ Microsoft Flow.png

Thanks in advance for any help!

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v-lin-msft 728 on at

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Hi @Anonymous,

Depending on what you type, it should be French, if your expected character is á, please type Ã¡ instead.

This link is UTF-8 Encoding Debugging Chart as below:
https://www.i18nqa.com/debug/utf8-debug.html

If you still have problem, I advise you to do nothing but wait for this file to be cleared or to resubmit request to restart the flow.

I hope it can help you.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @v-lin-msft ,

I can unfortunately not change what is coming out of the source system, it comes in the csv file as e.g. á or ø.

Why is the SFTP connector changing the character when it runs?

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v-lin-msft 728 on at

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Hi @Anonymous,

Perhaps utf-8 does not support the conversion of French vowels in CSV file format. You may could to try other methods, such as changing connetor in other file format to store your data.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Lin Tu
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

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oznat 11 on at

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Same problem here. The SFTP connector seems to be misinterpreting the encoding of the CSV which should be UTF-8 in this case. Because of the wrong encoding being applied by the connector, the file then loses special characters such as ø. Works fine if we force the encoding in the JSON to UTF-8, but then the web interface in Power Automate isn't happy.
To avoid losing special characters, it would be excellent if the SFTP connector in Power Automate could allow users to specify which character set should be used for the CSV.

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Chriddle 8,685 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Does the file content contain a Byte Order Mark?
https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/General-Power-Automate/wrong-caracter-from-CSV-to-sharepoint-list/td-p/2002511

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oznat 11 on at

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There is no Byte Order Mark in the CSV. We have tried including a BOM with the expression concat(decodeUriComponent('%EF%BB%BF') however the issue is with the SFTP SSH connector and its 'Get' actions. Viewing the details of the flow run, when opening the input results for the CSV file from the SFTP connection it has already replaced characters such as ø with �. The decode expression just changes the � into ï¿½

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Chriddle 8,685 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Can you provide your CSV file?

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oznat 11 on at

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I made a sample file for testing purposes (actual file contains personal details) but csv is not a supported file type for me to attach here. Only jpg, gif, png, pdf, zip, doc, docx, ppt, ics, xlsx, xlsm, msapp, pbix, pptx are supported. How would you like me to get the sample file to you?

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Chriddle 8,685 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Just zip it.

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oznat 11 on at

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Oh duh thanks. Here's the zipped sample file for testing purposes generated directly by the same source system.

The CSV is in an FTP and we need to use the SFTP connector to get the file without it losing the special characters.

sample.zip

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