diff --git a/e107_handlers/core_functions.php b/e107_handlers/core_functions.php
index e27d6aef7..853d7f8e9 100644
--- a/e107_handlers/core_functions.php
+++ b/e107_handlers/core_functions.php
@@ -572,7 +572,16 @@ class e_array {
 
         if($mode === 'json')
         {
-            return json_encode($ArrayData, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+            //todo discuss - move to e_parse::toJSON() ?
+            $encoded =  json_encode($ArrayData, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+            if(json_last_error() === JSON_ERROR_UTF8)
+            {
+                $ArrayData = e107::getParser()->toUTF8($ArrayData);
+                $encoded = json_encode($ArrayData, JSON_PRETTY_PRINT);
+                //todo log
+            }
+
+            return $encoded;
         }
 
         $Array = var_export($ArrayData, true);
@@ -586,6 +595,8 @@ class e_array {
     }
 
 
+
+
     /**
      * @DEPRECATED - Backwards Compatible. Use e107::serialize() instead; 
     * @param array $ArrayData array to be stored
@@ -628,7 +639,7 @@ class e_array {
 	 * 
 	 * @param string $systemLocationFile relative to e_SYSTEM file path (without the extension)
 	 * @param string $extension [optional] file extension, default is 'php'
-	 * @return array or false when file not found (or on error)
+	 * @return array|false false when file not found (or on error)
 	 */
 	public function load($systemLocationFile, $extension = 'php')
 	{
@@ -650,7 +661,7 @@ class e_array {
 	 * 
 	 * @param string $systemLocationFile relative to e_SYSTEM file path (without the extension)
 	 * @param string $extension [optional] file extension, default is 'php'
-	 * @return array or false when file not found (or on error)
+	 * @return array|false when file not found (or on error)
 	 */
 	public function store($array, $systemLocationFile, $extension = 'php')
 	{
diff --git a/e107_handlers/e_parse_class.php b/e107_handlers/e_parse_class.php
index 44881aa9d..f228d098c 100644
--- a/e107_handlers/e_parse_class.php
+++ b/e107_handlers/e_parse_class.php
@@ -2120,7 +2120,36 @@ class e_parse extends e_parser
 	}
 
 
+	/**
+	 * @param $mixed
+	 * @return array|false|string
+	 */
+	public function toUTF8($mixed)
+	{
 
+		if(is_array($mixed))
+		{
+			foreach($mixed as $k => $v)
+			{
+				unset($mixed[$k]);
+				$mixed[$this->toUTF8($k)] = $this->toUTF8($v);
+			}
+		}
+		elseif(is_object($mixed))
+		{
+			$objVars = get_object_vars($mixed);
+			foreach($objVars as $key => $value)
+			{
+				$mixed->$key = $this->toUTF8($value);
+			}
+		}
+		elseif(is_string($mixed))
+		{
+			return iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', utf8_encode($mixed));
+		}
+
+		return $mixed;
+	}
 
 
 	function toASCII($text)
diff --git a/e107_handlers/plugin_class.php b/e107_handlers/plugin_class.php
index 53bbf2b5b..38baf0347 100644
--- a/e107_handlers/plugin_class.php
+++ b/e107_handlers/plugin_class.php
@@ -759,6 +759,13 @@ class e_plugin
 
 		$cacheSet = e107::serialize($arr,'json');
 
+		if(empty($cacheSet))
+		{
+			$error = json_last_error_msg();
+			e107::getMessage()->addDebug("Plugin Cache JSON encoding is failing! (".__METHOD__.") Line: ".__LINE__);
+			e107::getMessage()->addDebug("JSON Error: ".$error);
+		}
+
 		e107::getCache()->set($cacheTag,$cacheSet,true,true,true);
 
 		$this->_data = $arr;
diff --git a/e107_tests/tests/unit/e_arrayTest.php b/e107_tests/tests/unit/e_arrayTest.php
index 7e8008e87..cf0a09f28 100644
--- a/e107_tests/tests/unit/e_arrayTest.php
+++ b/e107_tests/tests/unit/e_arrayTest.php
@@ -108,16 +108,15 @@ $data = array (
 			$this->assertArrayHasKey('TITLE', $actual);
 
 
-			// case sitePrefs
-		//	$string_6 = $this->getSitePrefExample();
-		//	$actual = $this->arrObj->unserialize($string_6);
-
-
 			$tests = array(
-				0   => array('string' => $this->getSitePrefExample(),
+				0   => array(
+						'string' => $this->getSitePrefExample(),
 						'expected' => array('email_password' => '$2y$10$IpizFx.gp5USl98SLXwwbeod3SYF3M3raAQX0y01ETexzoutvdyWW' )
 						),
-
+				1   => array(
+						'string' => "{\n    \"hello\": \"h\u00e9ll\u00f2 w\u00f2rld\"\n}",
+						'expected' => array('hello'=>'héllò wòrld')
+						),
 
 
 			);
@@ -167,5 +166,13 @@ $data = array (
 			$expected5  = "{\n    \"hello\": \"world\"\n}";
 			$this->assertEquals($expected5,$result5);
 
+			$pref6      = array('hello'=> mb_convert_encoding('héllò wòrld', 'ISO-8859-1'));
+			$result6    = $this->arrObj->serialize($pref6,'json');
+			$expected6  = "{\n    \"hello\": \"h\u00e9ll\u00f2 w\u00f2rld\"\n}";
+
+			$this->assertEquals($expected6,$result6);
+
+
+
 		}
 	}