Invalid bytes in character encoding
The file is not in the encoding it claims (UTF-8 unless it says otherwise).
The message, as the validator reports it
Invalid bytes in character encoding
Why it happens
- A file saved as Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1251 without an
encodingin the XML declaration, so it is read as UTF-8. - An
encodingdeclaration that does not match how the file was actually saved. - Text in two encodings in one file, after joining files or pasting.
How to fix it
Either convert the file to UTF-8, or declare its real encoding: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>. The validator reads the common single-byte encodings when they are declared.
Example
Reports the error
<note>café</note>
Fixed
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<note>café</note>