File Format & Compatibility

How to Fix Access SaveAsText Incorrect UTF-16 BOM Export

Maira Mehtab Sep 22, 2026 872 views

Question details

The user needs to resolve an issue where the Access Application.SaveAsText method exports files with a UTF-16 little-endian BOM, despite the actual content being 8-bit encoded.

Product: Microsoft Access 2021 (64-bit)
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Exporting form data or database objects using the VBA Application.SaveAsText method.
Observed behavior: The exported file applies a UTF-16LE BOM to 8-bit data, causing external applications that honor the BOM to display corrupted characters.

Before you start

Keep in mind that SaveAsText and LoadFromText are undocumented and officially unsupported VBA functions in Microsoft Access, meaning Microsoft may not provide a direct development patch for this behavior.

Solution 1Recommended

Convert the Exported File to Valid UTF-16LE Text

Since the BOM indicates UTF-16LE but the data is 8-bit, converting the actual text content to match the BOM is the safest way to prevent character corruption.

Export the database object

Use the Application.SaveAsText method in your VBA script to export your Access object to a text file as usual.

Read the file contents

Use an external script or a VBA ADODB.Stream object to read the exported file as 8-bit encoded text, ignoring the BOM mismatch temporarily.

Save with correct encoding

Write the text back into the file explicitly using UTF-16LE encoding so that the content matches the existing Byte Order Mark.

Report to Microsoft: Consider submitting this specific BOM encoding issue through the Microsoft Feedback Portal so their development team is aware of the 64-bit Access 2021 bug.

Solution 2

Remove the UTF-16LE BOM Using a Custom VBA Routine

If your downstream applications expect 8-bit data without a BOM, you can manually strip the incorrect BOM bytes from the exported file.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the Access SaveAsText function include a BOM?

The Access SaveAsText method was originally intended for internal use to export database objects as UTF-16LE text. UTF-16LE standardly includes a Byte Order Mark (BOM) to indicate the text encoding to other applications.

Are SaveAsText and LoadFromText officially supported by Microsoft?

No, both SaveAsText and LoadFromText are undocumented and unsupported functions primarily used internally by Access. Consequently, Microsoft does not provide official development support or guaranteed bug fixes for them.

Why do corrupted characters appear in my exported file?

The corruption occurs because the file contains a UTF-16LE BOM, but the actual text data is exported in an 8-bit encoding. When external applications read the file, they honor the BOM and misinterpret the 8-bit characters as UTF-16, resulting in garbled text.

Document & File Issues