GitHub Mobile fails initial code loading for repositories with Chinese paths and filenames

[Cxk4ng]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Android

Body

Title:
GitHub Mobile initial code loading fails with Chinese paths and filenames

Body:
The GitHub Mobile app fails to initially load repository code when both of the following are true:

• The repository is located under a path containing Chinese characters.
• The repository contains files or directories with Chinese names.

This issue reproduces consistently and has persisted across multiple app versions.

Platforms affected:

• GitHub for Android
• GitHub for iOS

Android behavior:
The initial load fails with a generic error. Pulling down to refresh afterwards successfully loads the code. This suggests that the repository and paths are valid, while the initial load, cache, or path-encoding flow fails.

Expected behavior:
Repository code should load normally regardless of UTF-8 Chinese characters in local paths or filenames.

Actual behavior:
The app displays “Something went wrong while executing your query”.

Error reference:
94A8:0DB1:1B5AF1:1C61FE:6AA2736D
Timestamp shown in the error:
2026-09-10T09:08:00Z

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[longerian]

I can reproduce what appears to be the same issue in the GitHub Android app.
I have a private repository with two Chinese-named directories:
日记: 168 files, all filenames are ASCII (e.g. 2026-10-08.md) — opens normally in the Android app.
日常思考: 42 files, all filenames contain Chinese/non-ASCII characters — opening this directory consistently fails with “Something went wrong while executing your query.”
I verified the repository itself is healthy:
GitHub REST Contents API returns the directory successfully.
Git Trees API returns the complete repository tree (truncated: false).
The directory contains only regular files, no submodules or symlinks.
Only 42 files, so this does not appear to be a directory-size issue.
Clearing app data, logging out/in, and disabling VPN/proxy do not help.
One failed request returned this correlation ID: 81DD:7B8CD:13DDA9:14C801:6AC700F7 at 2026-10-08T02:33:36Z.
This seems strongly related to directories whose entries contain CJK/non-ASCII filenames rather than connectivity or repository corruption.