# Reading ID3V2 encoding
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 21, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670 "2016-02-21T13:19:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rfecteau](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/rfecteau)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/1 "2016-02-21T13:19:49Z")
Is there a way to read the encoding of files such as UTF-8 or UTF-16. I know I can specify which to write, but I can't see a way to determine which a file currently has.
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### Author:  [@Rijkstra](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Rijkstra)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/2 "2016-02-21T14:27:11Z")
Do you have the TAG field enabled in "customize columns ..."? It will tell you which types are in the file.
ID3v2.3 = UTF-16 (default for writing)\*
ID3v2.4 = UTF-8
\*There is an option to write v2.3 in ISO-8859-1, but there is no distinction in the TAG field.
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/3 "2016-02-21T16:33:40Z")
> [@metalhead68](#):
>
> Is there a way to read the encoding of files such as UTF-8 or UTF-16. I know I can specify which to write, but I can't see a way to determine which a file currently has.
You can insert a column in Mp3tag listview ...
**Name : Char Enc Value: $ifgreater($strstr('|FLAC|MP4|WMA|','|'%\_tag\_read%'|'),0,'UTF-8',%\_id3v2\_character\_encoding%)**
See also ...
[/t/14360/1](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/14360/1)
DD.20160221.1835.CET
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### Author:  [@rfecteau](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/rfecteau)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/4 "2016-02-21T18:24:11Z")
That worked, thanks!
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### Author:  [@Rijkstra](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Rijkstra)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/5 "2016-02-21T19:29:20Z")
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> You can insert a column in Mp3tag listview ...
>
> **Name : Char Enc Value: $ifgreater($strstr('|FLAC|MP4|WMA|','|'%\_tag\_read%'|'),0,'UTF-8',%\_id3v2\_character\_encoding%)**
>
> ...
Thanks! I didn't create a separate column though. I just added %\_id3v2\_character\_encoding% to the TAG field so they would sort together.
Out of curiosity, I popped an old MP3 CD with files dated 2002-03 into the drive. They all had v1 and v2.3 tags all of which were encoded ISO-8859-1. When did UTF-16 become the standard?
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/reading-id3v2-encoding/17670/6 "2026-02-09T12:26:06Z")