title: MySQL - Table Data Import Wizard error in MacOS "Unhandled exception: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xef in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)"
body: <p>I am unable to load any CSV file into MySQL. Using the Table Data Import Wizard, this error pops up every time I get to the 'Configure Import Settings' step:</p>
  <p>&quot;Unhandled exception: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xef in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)&quot;</p>
  <p>... even though the CSV is encoded as UTF-8 and that seems to be the default encoding setting for MySQL Workbench. Granted, I am not very skilled with computers, I have only a few weeks' exposure to MySQL. This has not always happened to me. I had no issues with this a couple of months ago while I was in a database management course.</p>
  <p>But, I think this is where my problem lies: at one point I tried to uninstall MySQL Workbench and Community Server and re-installed, and ever since, this error happens every time I try to load data. I am even using a very basic test file that still won't load (all column types are set to 'Text' in Excel and saved as UTF-8 CSV:</p>
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/CS0RH.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/CS0RH.png" alt="Test data in Excel" /></a></p>
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gpQAG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gpQAG.png" alt="Screenshot of error in MySQL Workbench" /></a></p>
  <p>I am using MySQL 8.0.28 on MacOS 11.5.2 (Big Sur)</p>