Fixing Korean Character Encoding Issues After Apache Server Migration

After server migration or fresh Apache installation, Korean characters on websites may appear corrupted. This issue typically occurs due to improper charset configuration.

🚨 Problem Symptoms

After server migration, you may experience the following symptoms:

• Korean characters on web pages display as ? or corrupted characters
• Manual encoding change in browser is required for proper display
• Previously normal Korean content appears corrupted
• Korean data retrieved from database doesn’t display correctly

🔍 Root Cause Analysis

This phenomenon is often caused by missing charset configuration.

When the default character encoding is not set in Apache server, browsers must guess the appropriate encoding, and during this process, Korean characters are not properly interpreted, resulting in corruption.

📁 Configuration File Location

To resolve this issue, you need to check the following file:

/etc/apache2/conf-available/charset.conf

🔧 Checking Current Configuration

First, let’s check the current contents of the charset configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-available/charset.conf

When you open the file, you’ll see content like this:

# Read the documentation before enabling AddDefaultCharset.
# In general, it is only a good idea if you know that all your files
# have this encoding. It will override any encoding given in the files
# in meta http-equiv or xml encoding tags.

# AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

As you can see, AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 is commented out.

✅ Solution

1. Uncomment the Line

Uncomment the following line:

Before:

# AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

After:

AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

2. Enable Configuration

Enable the charset configuration:

sudo a2enconf charset

3. Restart Server

After changing the configuration, restart or reload the Apache server:

sudo service apache2 restart

or

sudo service apache2 reload

🧪 Verifying Configuration

How to verify that the configuration has been applied correctly:

1. Check HTTP Headers

In browser developer tools, check Response Headers. It should display:

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

2. Command Line Verification

curl -I http://your-domain.com

3. Apache Configuration Test

sudo apache2ctl configtest

💡 Additional Considerations

1. Relationship with HTML Meta Tags

The AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 setting takes precedence over HTML meta tags:

<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

2. Virtual Host-Specific Configuration

To apply only to specific virtual hosts:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
    # Other configurations...
</VirtualHost>

3. Directory-Specific Configuration

To apply only to specific directories:

<Directory "/var/www/html/korean">
    AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
</Directory>

⚠️ Precautions

1. Check Existing Encoding: Verify that all files are saved in UTF-8
2. Database Configuration: Also check database charset settings (MySQL, etc.)
3. Backup: Always backup important data before configuration changes
4. Testing: Test in a test environment before applying to production

🔍 Additional Troubleshooting

When Using with PHP

It’s recommended to specify encoding in PHP files as well:

<?php
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
?>

Using .htaccess Files

You can also use .htaccess files for directory-specific settings:

AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

📚 Conclusion

Korean character corruption after Apache server migration is mostly caused by missing charset configuration.

Key Solution Steps:

1. Check /etc/apache2/conf-available/charset.conf file
2. Uncomment AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
3. Enable configuration and restart server

This method resolves most Korean character corruption issues. If problems persist, also check database charset settings and PHP configuration.

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💡 Tip: When building new servers, setting UTF-8 charset from the beginning can prevent these issues!