# Invalid bytes in character encoding

Source: https://xmlvalid.com/errors/invalid-bytes-in-character-encoding

> The file is not in the encoding it claims (UTF-8 unless it says otherwise).

Example message: `Invalid bytes in character encoding`

## Why it happens

- A file saved as Windows-1252, ISO-8859-1 or Windows-1251 without an `encoding` in the XML declaration, so it is read as UTF-8.
- An `encoding` declaration 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 that fails

```xml
<note>café</note>
```

## Fixed

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<note>café</note>
```