# Save simple Chinese text in nocoDB via API is not working ?!?

**URL:** <https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811>\
**Category:** APIs\
**Created:** [May 25, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811 "2023-05-25T12:34:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daniel.dietze](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/community.nocodb.com/daniel.dietze/32/343_2.png) [@daniel.dietze](https://community.nocodb.com/u/daniel.dietze)\
**Post date:** [May 25, 2023, 12:34pm UTC](https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811/1 "2023-05-25T12:34:44Z")

</div>

Hello dear community  
I have a challenge in an ongoing problem that I could not solve yet. I fill the NocoDB via API with data from forms . As part of the internationalization process, I am now adding form data from china written in simple chinese. Unfortunately, the Chinese characters cannot be saved. Therefore my question, which adjustments do I have to make and where, so that I can save the Chinese texts via the interface.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![daniel.dietze](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/community.nocodb.com/daniel.dietze/32/343_2.png) [@daniel.dietze](https://community.nocodb.com/u/daniel.dietze)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2023, 2:24pm UTC](https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811/2 "2023-06-06T14:24:33Z")

</div>

Solution:  
change the charset of the database. I changed it from utf8 to utf8mb4. after that it worked just fine.

Important: it can happend that already existing entries in the database have mixed characters because they where added with a different charset.

To prevent you from data lost, make an backup of your database

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bf7051](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bf7051](https://community.nocodb.com/u/bf7051)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 5:08am UTC](https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811/3 "2024-09-14T05:08:15Z")

</div>

@daniel.dietze how did you change the charger of the database?

I’m facing the problem of ? being saved as $ via api into a json field

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dstala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f04885/32.png) [@dstala](https://community.nocodb.com/u/dstala)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 5:37am UTC](https://community.nocodb.com/t/save-simple-chinese-text-in-nocodb-via-api-is-not-working/811/4 "2024-09-14T05:37:48Z")

</div>

> [@daniel.dietze](#):
>
> change the charset of the database. I changed it from utf8 to utf8mb4. after that it worked just fine.

If you are using MySQL, here is an article.  
[https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/mysql-utf8mb4](https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/mysql-utf8mb4)

You can google / ask GPT for more details