Hello,
We’ve been unable to view the github diff for our iOS Project’s localization PRs from Transfiex, and upon investigation, I was able to fix this by converting the .strings file to UTF-8 on both the PR and the target branch.
However, it seems transifex is automatically switching the encoding back to UTF-16 LE on any change. Can I change this behavior? Is there a way for me to force encoding to stay as UTF-8?
Hello Dave,
Thank you for reaching out to Transifex. What is happening with your files is because Transifex preserves the encoding used when a resource was originally created. If the resource was created from a UTF-16 file, it will continue exporting files as UTF-16—even if you later replace the source with a UTF-8 file.
To use UTF-8, you’ll need to create new resources using UTF-8-encoded source files from the start.
Let me know if you need anything else,
Thank you for the reply. Are you aware of the github diff limitation I am referring to? The pull-request will not show changes when using the UTF-16 encoding, it shows “Binary file not shown”. Just curious if you’ve heard of this issue before.
If I create a new resource using UTF-8, can I copy all translations over from the previous resource? I want to avoid incurring any further costs.
You can copy the translations between resources using one of the following approaches.
Method 1: TM Fill-up (automatic, no manual work)
If both resources are in the same project or TM group, Translation Memory will auto-fill matching strings.
• Go to your project’s Settings > Workflow
• Enable Translation Memory Fill-up
• Set the match threshold (100% for exact matches, or lower for fuzzy)
• Upload or update the target resource — TM will auto-fill any strings that match the source resource’s translations
Best for: identical or very similar strings across resources in the same project. Setting Up Translation Memory Fill-up
If the resources are in different projects, create a TM Group first under Organization Settings > Translation Memory. Sharing Translation Memory
Method 2: Download and re-upload via UI
• Go to Resources > click the source resource
• Click the target language
• Click Download file to translate — this downloads the translation file
• Go back to Resources > click the destination resource
• Click the same target language
• Click Upload file and upload the file you downloaded
• Repeat for each language
Best for: one-time copy when resources share the same file format and string keys. Uploading Translations
Best regards
Carlos Olvera from Transifex team