diff --git a/src/plugins/coreplugin/editormanager/editormanager.cpp b/src/plugins/coreplugin/editormanager/editormanager.cpp
index c0d9eeced8a..cb190886973 100644
--- a/src/plugins/coreplugin/editormanager/editormanager.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/coreplugin/editormanager/editormanager.cpp
@@ -2087,6 +2087,8 @@ QTextCodec *EditorManager::defaultTextCodec() const
     if (QTextCodec *candidate = QTextCodec::codecForName(
             settings->value(QLatin1String(Constants::SETTINGS_DEFAULTTEXTENCODING)).toByteArray()))
         return candidate;
+    if (QTextCodec *defaultUTF8 = QTextCodec::codecForName("UTF-8"))
+        return defaultUTF8;
     return QTextCodec::codecForLocale();
 }