windows – Fix Unicode Characters Replaced by Question Marks After Copy and Paste on Windows

copy/pasteunicodewindowswindows 10

I have this odd issue that I've been having for years now since Windows 8 (I'm now on Windows 10, if I remember right. The problem only seems to be on my work computer. My other personal computers don't seem to have a problem. I didn't think about asking for help at first because I found a workaround – which I'll explain later – but I think enough is enough.

Basically, whenever I copy and paste Unicode text (Japanese, Arabic, etc.) they appear as question marks on paste. Here's an example Japanese text that I'll copy:

何これ？！意味わかない！

And here's what it looks like after pasting:

????!??????!

Interestingly, if I copy the exact same text again for at least one more time, it will paste properly…

何これ？！意味わかない！

Removing even a single character from the selection before copy will cause the issue to "reset".

This was my workaround. It's not too difficult to do but I tend to always forget to do it because my other PCs work fine. This adds more steps and wastes precious seconds.

The problem is system-wide and affects all the programs and apps I use.

Any idea how to fix this permanently? Any help will be highly appreciated.

Best Answer

I've "suffered" from this issue for years and I never knew the fix was so dead simple until Sanny menitoned "locale" in a comment above (Thanks Sanny!). Haha! Anyway, here's how to fix it if you come upon the same issue as I did:

This applies to Windows 10 (build 15002) but it may be similar to older (or newer) versions of Windows.

  1. Go to the Region settings in the Control Panel. There are several ways to do this and here's a few of them.
    • In the Search bar (Cortana) on the taskbar, search for "Control Panel". In the Control Panel, click on Change date, time, or number formats under Clock, Language and Region in category view or Region in icon list view
    • Windows 10 only: In the Search bar again, search for "region & language settings". This will open the Region & Language page in the Settings app. Scroll down until you find Additional date, time, & region settings. You may then select Region on the Control Panel window that opens.
  2. Open the Administrative tab and click on the Change system locale button. Choose a locale that is different to your current locale. I went with Japanese. I think choosing the language you will copy-paste often would be best, though it may be the same regardless. Acknowledge the change with OK.
  3. The system will ask you to restart which you'll obviously need to do to notice the changes.
  4. After restarting, test if copy-paste now works as intended. Upon success, you may re-do the above steps again and switch back to the locale you actually need to use.

That's it! Enjoy copy-pasting! ;)

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