How do I fix "Error: A charset attribute on a meta element found after the first 512 bytes."

Question

I am getting this error for my site in validation.

Error: A charset attribute on a meta element found after the first 512 bytes.

and here is code causing this problem:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html class="not-ie no-js" lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> 
<head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/TY3RDsIgDEV_SFb5pAqVgLDWFTb79y6bWXw6ybk3OR4KdcHwgsZxVFLYckzUL97uoN0q7QyqUN6DFpueOAd78Gdqef4ta47EruifwhEzS0WjZfWH97CJSw1FcjdHqOYSc6rkdqdnaU_LdRHW7k79BQ.css" media="all" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/hY7RDsIgDEV_aFCXmCzxb5DVDQSKtDj164W5dx977rltV5F8ATDevPRCtAQ02bG2FHcGwV0Z_KNiecOoJz0eg44uac_DCTxDpBlLcp-ibWWh-KNPNyMpz10dztBWRkyiCuaw14exsSTGirpRiWoCl2yoM3JvH2d68l9mW1wWbpJHycbe-0s1tHDLS6GVvg.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/M9YvzdTPKixNLarUK83UK89MSU8t0cvNzAMA.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/ZY5BDsIwDAQ_RNIWxEt4gUkMuKRxsJPS8HpacahQLnuYnZW270btFAO6TDN9xED0BpcsYH6URe1E8dBvoqAmjn4H46ugVIugFO9msKemukF09cqLTeCef42rLqCFEJqNTiD5krcI5FEagZQzJ2z46EC4rMf3BoonTgEqyjw0g8zFPS5vSrieP9rzLriimacv.js"></script>
<meta charset="UTF-8">

As an aside, that test is out of date. The current authoring requirements are that [`The element containing the character encoding declaration must be serialized completely within the first 1024 bytes of the document.`](http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/CR-html5-20121217/document-metadata.html#charset) — Alohci, Aug 02 '13 at 07:00
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4696499/meta-charset-utf-8-vs-meta-http-equiv-content-type — Wtower, Jan 25 '19 at 11:43

paxdiablo · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-02T07:37:45.193

Move the meta entry to above all those other entries, such as:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html class="not-ie no-js" lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> 
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/TY3RDsIgDEV_SFb5pAqVgLDWFTb79y6bWXw6ybk3OR4KdcHwgsZxVFLYckzUL97uoN0q7QyqUN6DFpueOAd78Gdqef4ta47EruifwhEzS0WjZfWH97CJSw1FcjdHqOYSc6rkdqdnaU_LdRHW7k79BQ.css" media="all" />
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/hY7RDsIgDEV_aFCXmCzxb5DVDQSKtDj164W5dx977rltV5F8ATDevPRCtAQ02bG2FHcGwV0Z_KNiecOoJz0eg44uac_DCTxDpBlLcp-ibWWh-KNPNyMpz10dztBWRkyiCuaw14exsSTGirpRiWoCl2yoM3JvH2d68l9mW1wWbpJHycbe-0s1tHDLS6GVvg.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/M9YvzdTPKixNLarUK83UK89MSU8t0cvNzAMA.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://mywebsite.com.au/wp-content/cache/minify/000000/ZY5BDsIwDAQ_RNIWxEt4gUkMuKRxsJPS8HpacahQLnuYnZW270btFAO6TDN9xED0BpcsYH6URe1E8dBvoqAmjn4H46ugVIugFO9msKemukF09cqLTeCef42rLqCFEJqNTiD5krcI5FEagZQzJ2z46EC4rMf3BoonTgEqyjw0g8zFPS5vSrieP9rzLriimacv.js"></script>

Your problem lies with your violations of the W3C HTML5 recommendation:

The element containing the character encoding declaration must be serialized completely within the first 1024 bytes of the document.

Whatever test you're using is somewhat out of date, the limit used to be 512 bytes but was changed (at the latest) December 2012.

Those rather chunky script tags are pushing the character set specification well outside the 512-byte range of your test tool. Even if you use a later test tool that recognises the change to 1024 bytes, it may still be a problem. The advice to put the meta tag up front should fix either case.

The document you link to is not the specification, but to an out of date reference document. — Alohci, Aug 02 '13 at 07:07

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 14 '13 at 09:02

10

Just put

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

like full sentence instead of only writing

<meta charset="UTF-8">

it works fine for me.

answered Oct 14 '13 at 09:02

Hugo Rush

101
1
2

2

It will not validate as HTML5. – Michael Rogers Aug 18 '16 at 18:49

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 02 '13 at 02:56

1

Try putting the meta tag as the first thing inside head

edited Aug 02 '13 at 02:56

Richard Sitze

8,262
3
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answered Aug 02 '13 at 02:34

p e p

6,593
2
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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 14 '15 at 17:43

0

This error also occurs if you have the tag appearing more than once in the <head> code on the page. Check you have not inadvertently written this twice.

answered Jul 14 '15 at 17:43

Martin

22,212
11
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How do I fix "Error: A charset attribute on a meta element found after the first 512 bytes."

4 Answers4