diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a08a5af7d..7c30ed35c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 ### Fixed
 
 - relay: fix crash after `/upgrade` when relay clients are connected
+- core: save configuration files as UTF-8 when the locale is wrong
 - api: fix creation of empty buffer in function infolist_new_var_buffer
 - core: fix build with gcc 15 ([#2229](https://github.com/weechat/weechat/issues/2229), [#2230](https://github.com/weechat/weechat/issues/2230))
 - core: fix detection of dl library ([#2218](https://github.com/weechat/weechat/issues/2218))
diff --git a/src/core/core-string.c b/src/core/core-string.c
index 62d53a97e..8e90bf7ec 100644
--- a/src/core/core-string.c
+++ b/src/core/core-string.c
@@ -3241,7 +3241,8 @@ string_iconv_to_internal (const char *charset, const char *string)
 }
 
 /*
- * Converts internal string to terminal charset, for display.
+ * Converts internal string to terminal charset, for display or write of
+ * configuration files.
  *
  * Note: result must be freed after use.
  */
@@ -3258,6 +3259,10 @@ string_iconv_from_internal (const char *charset, const char *string)
     if (!input)
         return NULL;
 
+    /* if the locale is wrong, we keep UTF-8 */
+    if (!weechat_locale_ok)
+        return input;
+
     /*
      * optimized for UTF-8: if charset is NULL => we use term charset => if
      * this charset is already UTF-8, then no iconv is needed
diff --git a/src/core/weechat.h b/src/core/weechat.h
index 3c0bb0f18..206d9cc49 100644
--- a/src/core/weechat.h
+++ b/src/core/weechat.h
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ extern char *weechat_data_dir;
 extern char *weechat_state_dir;
 extern char *weechat_cache_dir;
 extern char *weechat_runtime_dir;
+extern int weechat_locale_ok;
 extern char *weechat_local_charset;
 extern int weechat_plugin_no_dlclose;
 extern int weechat_no_gnutls;