Issue with Character sets

I have a php site with a MySQL database. Recently moved site to GoDaddy and I have an issue displaying french language characters.
Everything is fine on old server.

On new server, display is fine in DataAssist Admin pages, but incorrect in the Data Assist Search pages in the public part of my site.
DB collation is identical. Pages are obviously identical.

There is something in the query in the DataAssist Admin pages that is missing in the public pages that forces the correct display, but I cannot find it. The public page uses Data Assist Search

Any clues?

In the reading I have done, I find that it is not enough to simply declare utf-8 in the header because there can be an underlying character set default in the MySQL database but I cannot isolate what (if anything) is present in the DataAssist pages that I am missing in my own pages.

You can set the charset in the database connection too. This is one where I'd need FTP access to check all of the places where it might be wrong.

See PM

It looks like the charset for the database was set to latin1. That conflict could cause issues displaying results.

I've updated the database charset, but that may have corrupted the data itself. Please check that it is correct in the database. Can I get access to the phpMyAdmin?

Thanks. That exposes the problem. Original database is setup as the MySQL Default. latin1_swedish_ci, however, the data is utf-8. The export just garbles it. Looking into possible ways to convert the data on the original db and then export it. Not sure it is possible with the current setup though.

Solved. Tried several methods to convert but settled on emptying the table, changing the collation on the affected fields, and re-importing.

Thanks for your input Ray. It pointed me in the right direction.

Still struggling with this.
When importing the sql file from the original server, the GoDaddy file is converting the data.

Issues are:
Château becomes Château (as an example right out of database with HeidiSQL)

Also, while Château displays correctly on my public page as well as my admin page,(Château) when I pick it out of a drop down list it will not find a match.

Likewise, it will not match a Keyword search. If my DataAssist Search pages would recognize the pattern I have no problem. The new database is latin1_swedish_ci as is the old one. Both new and old databases have the issue of not matching many of the words with special characters. Viewing Source shows the 'translated' Château.

If your database has latin1_swedish then you should use a connection and html page with that charset. Usually I suggest using utf8 for all, but the key is consistency that is key.

I'd just update everything to utf-8. Worst case scenario you may have to fix the field values in the database itself, but everything should be working at that point and have consistent results.

Made a copy of db on old server.
Ran queries to convert db and tables to utf-8.
Display is fine on all pages.
Search will not match though if there are special characters.

Exported utf8 table
Imported on GoDaddy using HeidiSQL. Characters were altered in db.
Dropped table and am trying an import through PHPMyAdmin.

I don't understand why it won't import it as is. I can see the correct characters in my SQL file.

Even if I can get it imported though, I still have the matching issue on a search. If there is a special character in the word I am matching it will fail.

Got the import to work. Data is identical on both servers. Display is fine.
Just left with the fact that if I type a word like: Îles or AÎNÉS or Rivière it will not match on my public page but it matches perfectly in my _admin page. Both are DataAssist and I cannot find a difference.