CSV shows é instead of é in Excel? How to fix the accents

You open a CSV export and every accent is mangled: é becomes é, an apostrophe becomes ’, ü becomes ü. Names, addresses and product titles are unreadable. Nothing is lost — Excel is simply reading the file with the wrong encoding.

Why it happens

Most systems export CSV in UTF-8. When the file doesn't start with a small marker (a “byte order mark”), Excel for Windows often assumes your region's older encoding (Windows-1252 in Western Europe and the US) and reads each accented letter as two wrong characters.

Fix 1 — Import it with the right encoding (Excel for Windows)

1. Open a blank workbook and choose Data → From Text/CSV.
2. Select the file. In the preview, set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8).
3. Check the accents in the preview, then click Load.

Fix 2 — Excel for Mac

Choose File → Import, pick CSV file, and in the import wizard set File origin to Unicode (UTF-8).

Fix 3 — Convert it to a real Excel file

If you open such files often, convert them once to .xlsx. A converter that detects the encoding (UTF-8, UTF-16 or Windows-1252) produces a workbook where the accents are simply right — for you and for whoever you send it to.

Saving a CSV that others can open

• In Excel, use File → Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited), not plain “CSV”.
• Files written with a UTF-8 byte order mark open correctly in Excel by double-click.