With the file open in the editor, either select File | File Properties | File Encoding from the main menu or click the File Encoding widget on the status bar, and select the correct encoding of the file. In this case, you need to specify the correct encoding to use for viewing and editing this file. If IntelliJ IDEA displays characters in a file incorrectly, it probably couldn't detect the file encoding. If the parent directory encoding is also not configured, IntelliJ IDEA will fall back to the Project Encoding, and if there is no project, to Global Encoding. If encoding is not configured for the file or directory, IntelliJ IDEA will use the encoding of the parent directory.

If there is no BOM and no explicit encoding declaration in the file, IntelliJ IDEA will use the encoding configured for the file or directory in the file encoding settings. The explicit declaration also overrides all other settings, but you can change it in the editor. For example, this can apply to XML, HTML, and JSP files. If the file declares the encoding explicitly, IntelliJ IDEA will use the specified encoding. For more information, see Byte order mark.

If the byte order mark (BOM) is present, IntelliJ IDEA will use the corresponding Unicode encoding regardless of all other settings. To determine the encoding of a file, IntelliJ IDEA uses the following steps: This is the recommended encoding unless you have some other requirements. In general, source code files are mostly in UTF-8.

To display and edit files correctly, IntelliJ IDEA needs to know which encoding to use.

How to change text encoding settings