How to tell wget to download files with url encoded names?

Question

I'm trying to download an entire website using wget and this is the command I use:

wget --recursive --no-clobber --page-requisites --convert-links --domains example.com --no-parent http://www.example.com/en/

It's working just fine but there is one problem. There files (mainly images) that their name contains Chinese characters like this:

http://www.example.com/path/to/首页主KV3.jpg

After downloading the file has been save with this name:

??%96页主KV3.jpg

And it's addressed in the html page like this and therefore issuing a 404 error:

�%2596页主KV3.jpg

I wonder how can I prevent this inconsistency?!

Chris Davies · Accepted Answer · 2025-08-28 06:17:10Z

It's about the UTF-8 and ASCII encoding. the issue has been addressed in the following link:

Worth reading, but in essence you have to tell wget not to try and "fix" filenames by specifying --restrict-file-names=nocontrol:

wget -r -np -nc --restrict-file-names=nocontrol URL

Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2023-02-26 12:06:20Z

I fought with this today as well.

In my case the problem was with German letters like ä,ö,ü

I fixed it by setting all my language settings to UTF-8.

You can see a tutorial here:

2 Answers 2