Clean up malformed characters in WordPress database

character-cleanup.sql

## Run this in phpMyadmin
##
## Cleans up Posts table
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '“', '“');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '”', '”');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '’', '’');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '‘', '‘');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '—', '–');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '–', '—');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '•', '-');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '…', '…');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'Â', '');

##
##
## Cleans up Comments
##
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '“', '“');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '”', '”');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '’', '’');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '‘', '‘');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '—', '–');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '–', '—');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '•', '-');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, '…', '…');
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_content = REPLACE(comment_content, 'Â', '');

##
##
## Cleans up User Meta (descriptions)
##
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '“', '“');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '”', '”');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '’', '’');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '‘', '‘');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '—', '–');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '–', '—');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '•', '-');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, '…', '…');
UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = REPLACE(meta_value, 'Â', '');

You saved me a lot of work, thank you.

This is gold! Thank you.