The most common problem is that the character-set in your database tables are not set as utf8. The simplest solution is to change the database directly. To do this you need access to your cpanel and phpmyadmin.

Changing the collation for all tables in a MySQL database can be time consuming depending on how many tables you have.

That's why we recommend using the following PHP script for changing the collation for all tables at a time:

<code>{<?php
$db = mysql_connect('localhost','myuser_mydbuser','mypassword');
if(!$db) echo "Cannot connect to the database - incorrect details";
mysql_select_db('myuser_mydbname'); $result=mysql_query('show tables');
while($tables = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
foreach ($tables as $key => $value) {
mysql_query("ALTER TABLE $value COLLATE utf8_general_ci");
}}
echo "The collation of your database has been successfully changed!";
?>}</code>

Make sure to substitute in the above script:

- myuser_mydbname with your database name;

- myuser_mydbuser with your mysql username;

- mypassword with your password for the mysql user;

- utf8-general_ci with your new collation if different;