PHP 8 Doesn’t Support Emojis? Appear as Question Marks

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for example https://victorsbiscuits.com/review-of-new-cinnamon-toast-crunch-cookies-limited-edition-hostess-snacks-more/

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PHP 8 Doesn’t Support Emojis?

Test site with PHP 8.1: https://og-warfare-xina.instawp.xyz/phpinfo.php

Emoji working correctly: https://og-warfare-xina.instawp.xyz/

(Links only active for the next 48 hours)

Perhaps a classic case of correlation not being causality.

yeah, we set up a test site with same plugins and themes as my main site and emojis worked. So then, I’m wondering what could be the issue

Fix:

With the host we’re using, switching to PHP 8 via CPanel enabled certain extensions. So, we matched the extensions used by PHP 7.4 and the emojis worked again. 

But, we then defaulted back to PHP 8 extensions and the emojis worked… something about the extensions… It doesn’t make full sense to me but that was the fix.

Hi, I just has this issue moving from php 8.0 to 8.1 on WP 6.2.2.

I pinned it down to the PHP mySQL modules.

v8.0 OK : modules: -mysqli / +mysqlnd / +nd_mysqli

v8.1 NOT OK : modules: / +mysqli / +mysqlnd / -nd_mysqli

So under php 8.1 I disabled the ‘mysqli’ module and enabled the ‘nd_mysqli’ module and the emoji’s started working again ??

The mysql nd modules support native mysql drivers in PHP and have been recommended since PHP 5.4

More detail here and here.

Hope this helps others.