diff --git a/src/lib/components/variables/importVariablesModal.svelte b/src/lib/components/variables/importVariablesModal.svelte
index 9eed108b23..2aa3d27490 100644
--- a/src/lib/components/variables/importVariablesModal.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/components/variables/importVariablesModal.svelte
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     import type { Models } from '@appwrite.io/console';
     import { IconInfo } from '@appwrite.io/pink-icons-svelte';
     import { Icon, Layout, Selector, Tooltip, Typography, Upload } from '@appwrite.io/pink-svelte';
-    import { parse } from '$lib/helpers/envfile';
+    import { parse, readEnvFile } from '$lib/helpers/envfile';
     import { removeFile } from '$lib/helpers/files';
     import { validateVariables } from '$lib/helpers/variables';
 
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
                 throw new Error('No file selected');
             }
 
-            const uploaded = parse(await files[0].text());
+            const uploaded = parse(await readEnvFile(files[0]));
 
             if (!Object.keys(uploaded).length) {
                 throw new Error('No variables found');
diff --git a/src/lib/helpers/envfile.test.ts b/src/lib/helpers/envfile.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..18194cdab8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/helpers/envfile.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+import { parse, readEnvFile } from '$lib/helpers/envfile';
+import { expect, test } from 'vitest';
+
+function encodeUtf16(text: string, littleEndian: boolean, bom: boolean): Uint8Array {
+    const codeUnits = bom
+        ? [0xfeff, ...text.split('').map((c) => c.charCodeAt(0))]
+        : text.split('').map((c) => c.charCodeAt(0));
+    const bytes = new Uint8Array(codeUnits.length * 2);
+    const view = new DataView(bytes.buffer);
+    codeUnits.forEach((unit, i) => view.setUint16(i * 2, unit, littleEndian));
+    return bytes;
+}
+
+const ENV = 'VITE_GEMINI_API_KEY=secret-value\nOTHER_KEY=other';
+const EXPECTED = { VITE_GEMINI_API_KEY: 'secret-value', OTHER_KEY: 'other' };
+
+test('reads UTF-8', async () => {
+    const file = new Blob([new TextEncoder().encode(ENV)]);
+    expect(parse(await readEnvFile(file))).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+});
+
+test('reads UTF-8 with BOM', async () => {
+    const bytes = new Uint8Array([0xef, 0xbb, 0xbf, ...new TextEncoder().encode(ENV)]);
+    expect(parse(await readEnvFile(new Blob([bytes])))).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+});
+
+test('reads UTF-16LE with BOM (PowerShell default)', async () => {
+    const file = new Blob([encodeUtf16(ENV, true, true)]);
+    expect(parse(await readEnvFile(file))).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+});
+
+test('reads UTF-16BE with BOM', async () => {
+    const file = new Blob([encodeUtf16(ENV, false, true)]);
+    expect(parse(await readEnvFile(file))).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+});
+
+test('reads BOM-less UTF-16LE by NUL heuristic', async () => {
+    const file = new Blob([encodeUtf16(ENV, true, false)]);
+    const parsed = parse(await readEnvFile(file));
+    expect(parsed).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+    // The regression this guards: keys must not carry interleaved NUL bytes.
+    expect(Object.keys(parsed).some((key) => key.includes('\u0000'))).toBe(false);
+});
+
+test('reads BOM-less UTF-16BE by NUL heuristic', async () => {
+    const file = new Blob([encodeUtf16(ENV, false, false)]);
+    expect(parse(await readEnvFile(file))).toEqual(EXPECTED);
+});
+
+test('keeps UTF-8 text containing a stray NUL as UTF-8', async () => {
+    const text = 'A=1\nB=has\u0000nul';
+    const file = new Blob([new TextEncoder().encode(text)]);
+    expect(await readEnvFile(file)).toBe(text);
+});
diff --git a/src/lib/helpers/envfile.ts b/src/lib/helpers/envfile.ts
index 637e852737..78abfb1b74 100644
Binary files a/src/lib/helpers/envfile.ts and b/src/lib/helpers/envfile.ts differ
diff --git a/src/routes/(console)/project-[region]-[project]/uploadVariablesModal.svelte b/src/routes/(console)/project-[region]-[project]/uploadVariablesModal.svelte
index e2d10734c0..a1d491c6b2 100644
--- a/src/routes/(console)/project-[region]-[project]/uploadVariablesModal.svelte
+++ b/src/routes/(console)/project-[region]-[project]/uploadVariablesModal.svelte
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
         Typography,
         Upload
     } from '@appwrite.io/pink-svelte';
-    import { parse } from '$lib/helpers/envfile';
+    import { parse, readEnvFile } from '$lib/helpers/envfile';
     import { removeFile } from '$lib/helpers/files';
     import { validateVariables } from '$lib/helpers/variables';
     import type { VariablesOperationItem } from './variablesOperation';
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
                 throw new Error('No file selected');
             }
 
-            const uploaded = parse(await files[0].text());
+            const uploaded = parse(await readEnvFile(files[0]));
 
             if (!Object.keys(uploaded).length) {
                 throw new Error('No variables found');