> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://xoops.gitbook.io/xoops-installation-guide/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://xoops.gitbook.io/xoops-installation-guide/historical-upgrade-notes/upgrading-a-non-utf-8-site.md).

# Upgrading a non UTF-8 site

> **Historical reference**
>
> This page describes a legacy upgrade path that pre-dates XOOPS 2.7.0. XOOPS 2.7.0 uses `utf8mb4` by default and there is no supported direct upgrade path from a non-UTF-8 site to 2.7.0 — convert the site to UTF-8 first using the procedure below, then follow [Chapter 9](/xoops-installation-guide/chapter-9-upgrade-existing-xoops-installation.md).

UTF-8 encoding has been introduced into XOOPS 2.3 as default charset. However, there might be some problems with converting existing websites from non UTF-8 charset to UTF-8.

Before there is a good enough solution for this conversion, following settings are recommended when you upgrade an existing website if you are not an experienced user:

* Select "Do not change" option in "Database character set and collation" step during upgrade process
* Modify /languages/yourlanguage/global.php to use your previous \_CHARSET value, if it has been changed to UTF-8 in your new global.php file as define('\_CHARSET', 'UTF-8');