I think I have finally gotten rid of the stray Âs
Can it be true?? After hours of angst, combing the wordpress forums, and pitifully begging for a solution to how to decipher sql in various forums, I finally managed to finish (I think) this latest wordpress upgrade, which included having to change all the sql table collations from latin1 to utf-8.
After having to restore the database TWICE to the older version and each time ending up with more and more frightening characters, I installed the wordpress “Search & Replace” Plugin and changed all (I think…) instances of non-ASCII letters to their character entities.
And then, third time lucky, I got the instructions at
mydigitallife.info: how to convert character set and collation of wordpress database to work for me! Whoohoooooo!!
And now I’m going to use “Search & Replace” to put them back. Or do I need to bother? 
It would be much better to post about “steak and kidney pie”, wouldn’t it?
testing to see if “recent comments” are showing up in the sidebar
“Recent comments” are still not updating unless jump-started by going into the settings.
I vote for the pie…
Good plan, Katie!! Now, if work weren’t getting in the way, I would add another candidate to rival the pie – our exciting adventures with beets. (Must just ignore the fact that the “recent comments” aren’t getting updated automatically on the sidebar. Focus on the food. Focus on the food….) -Elizabeth
might have just fixed this recent comments thing… (unchecked “cache the output” in the settings)
edit: Yay!! It worked! Now onto beets – as soon as I get the photos out of the camera AND finish my other work….
I’m in the midst of similar angst. I came here from MyDigitalLife, hoping to see a real-life example of someone taking their advice step by step. Do I understand correctly that you used the Search and Replace plugin also? Successfully?
Thanks and happy eating.
I did use the Search and Replace plugin, Daniel, but the whole process wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. I have to confess that I found the admin area of Search and Replace to be quite confusing.
But, for the most part, I managed to get rid of those annoying Âs, etc. (Do I remember what I did though???)
-Elizabeth