diff --git a/core/playlists/import_test.go b/core/playlists/import_test.go
index 25960f0fe..fed2a280c 100644
--- a/core/playlists/import_test.go
+++ b/core/playlists/import_test.go
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import (
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
 	"github.com/zeebo/xxh3"
+	"golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap"
 	"golang.org/x/text/unicode/norm"
 )
 
@@ -100,6 +101,34 @@ var _ = Describe("Playlists - Import", func() {
 				Expect(pls.Tracks[0].Path).To(Equal("tests/fixtures/playlists/test.mp3"))
 			})
 
+			It("matches accented tracks from a Windows-1252/Latin-1 encoded playlist (issue #6037)", func() {
+				tmpDir := GinkgoT().TempDir()
+
+				// The track exists in the library with a correctly UTF-8 encoded name
+				// mixing CJK folders with accented Latin characters, as reported.
+				dbPath := "PokéMon Black Và White.mp3"
+
+				// The playlist was saved by a Windows editor as Windows-1252, so the
+				// accented characters are single high bytes (é=0xE9, à=0xE0) rather
+				// than UTF-8. Encode the same name to Windows-1252 for the on-disk file.
+				latin1Line, err := charmap.Windows1252.NewEncoder().String(dbPath)
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+				Expect([]byte(latin1Line)).To(ContainElement(byte(0xE9)))
+
+				plsFile := filepath.Join(tmpDir, "test.m3u")
+				Expect(os.WriteFile(plsFile, []byte(latin1Line+"\n"), 0600)).To(Succeed())
+
+				mockLibRepo.SetData([]model.Library{{ID: 1, Path: tmpDir}})
+				ds.MockedMediaFile = &mockedMediaFileFromListRepo{data: []string{dbPath}}
+				ps = playlists.NewPlaylists(ds, artwork.NewUploader(ds))
+
+				plsFolder := &model.Folder{ID: "1", LibraryID: 1, LibraryPath: tmpDir, Path: "", Name: ""}
+				pls, err := ps.ImportFromFolder(ctx, plsFolder, "test.m3u")
+				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+				Expect(pls.Tracks).To(HaveLen(1))
+				Expect(pls.Tracks[0].Path).To(Equal(dbPath))
+			})
+
 			It("parses #EXTALBUMARTURL with HTTP URL", func() {
 				conf.Server.EnableM3UExternalAlbumArt = true
 
diff --git a/utils/ioutils/ioutils.go b/utils/ioutils/ioutils.go
index 89d3997f3..e33dc5861 100644
--- a/utils/ioutils/ioutils.go
+++ b/utils/ioutils/ioutils.go
@@ -1,26 +1,78 @@
 package ioutils
 
 import (
+	"bufio"
+	"bytes"
 	"io"
 	"os"
+	"unicode/utf8"
 
+	"golang.org/x/text/encoding/charmap"
 	"golang.org/x/text/encoding/unicode"
 	"golang.org/x/text/transform"
 )
 
-// UTF8Reader wraps an io.Reader to handle Byte Order Mark (BOM) properly.
-// It strips UTF-8 BOM if present, and converts UTF-16 (LE/BE) to UTF-8.
-// This is particularly useful for reading user-provided text files (like LRC lyrics,
-// playlists) that may have been created on Windows, which often adds BOM markers.
+// UTF8Reader wraps an io.Reader so downstream code always sees UTF-8, whatever
+// encoding a user-provided text file (LRC lyrics, M3U playlists) happened to be
+// saved in. A Byte Order Mark is authoritative: a UTF-8 BOM is stripped and
+// UTF-16 (LE/BE) is transcoded to UTF-8, both handled as a stream.
+//
+// Without a BOM the encoding has to be judged from the whole content. The reader
+// keeps the bytes as they are when they form valid UTF-8, and otherwise decodes
+// the entire input as Windows-1252 (a superset of Latin-1). Choosing one encoding
+// for the whole file, rather than per character, matters: a genuinely
+// Windows-1252 file can contain a byte pair that happens to be valid UTF-8 (for
+// example "£" is C2 A3), and a per-character choice would decode that pair as a
+// different string than the rest of the file, so the affected path would silently
+// fail to match. This recovers accented characters from the legacy single-byte
+// encodings Windows editors still emit instead of replacing them with U+FFFD.
 //
 // Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark
 func UTF8Reader(r io.Reader) io.Reader {
-	return transform.NewReader(r, unicode.BOMOverride(unicode.UTF8.NewDecoder()))
+	br := bufio.NewReader(r)
+
+	// A BOM is an explicit declaration, so honor it and keep the stream lazy.
+	if prefix, _ := br.Peek(3); hasBOM(prefix) {
+		return transform.NewReader(br, unicode.BOMOverride(unicode.UTF8.NewDecoder()))
+	}
+
+	// No BOM: read it all so the encoding can be decided from the whole content.
+	data, err := io.ReadAll(br)
+	out := data
+	if !utf8.Valid(data) {
+		// Windows-1252 maps every byte, so this decode never fails.
+		out, _ = charmap.Windows1252.NewDecoder().Bytes(data)
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		return io.MultiReader(bytes.NewReader(out), errorReader{err: err})
+	}
+	return bytes.NewReader(out)
 }
 
-// UTF8ReadFile reads the named file and returns its contents as a byte slice,
-// automatically handling BOM markers. It's similar to os.ReadFile but strips
-// UTF-8 BOM and converts UTF-16 encoded files to UTF-8.
+// hasBOM reports whether b starts with a UTF-8 or UTF-16 (LE/BE) Byte Order Mark.
+func hasBOM(b []byte) bool {
+	switch {
+	case len(b) >= 3 && b[0] == 0xEF && b[1] == 0xBB && b[2] == 0xBF: // UTF-8
+		return true
+	case len(b) >= 2 && b[0] == 0xFF && b[1] == 0xFE: // UTF-16 LE
+		return true
+	case len(b) >= 2 && b[0] == 0xFE && b[1] == 0xFF: // UTF-16 BE
+		return true
+	default:
+		return false
+	}
+}
+
+// errorReader replays a read error that surfaced while buffering the input, so
+// callers still see it lazily on their next Read.
+type errorReader struct{ err error }
+
+func (e errorReader) Read([]byte) (int, error) { return 0, e.err }
+
+// UTF8ReadFile reads the named file and returns its contents as UTF-8 bytes.
+// It's like os.ReadFile but runs the data through UTF8Reader, so BOMs are
+// stripped, UTF-16 is transcoded, and legacy Windows-1252/Latin-1 bytes are
+// recovered rather than replaced with U+FFFD.
 func UTF8ReadFile(filename string) ([]byte, error) {
 	file, err := os.Open(filename)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/utils/ioutils/ioutils_test.go b/utils/ioutils/ioutils_test.go
index 7f5483879..7dbdca0c2 100644
--- a/utils/ioutils/ioutils_test.go
+++ b/utils/ioutils/ioutils_test.go
@@ -2,8 +2,10 @@ package ioutils
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
+	"errors"
 	"io"
 	"testing"
+	"testing/iotest"
 
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
@@ -81,6 +83,83 @@ var _ = Describe("UTF8Reader", func() {
 			Expect(string(output)).To(Equal(""))
 		})
 	})
+
+	Context("when reading Windows-1252/Latin-1 encoded text (issue #6037)", func() {
+		It("decodes accented bytes instead of emitting U+FFFD", func() {
+			// "PokéMon" and "Và" with é (0xE9) and à (0xE0) as single Latin-1 bytes.
+			input := []byte{'P', 'o', 'k', 0xE9, 'M', 'o', 'n', ' ', 'V', 0xE0}
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(string(output)).To(Equal("PokéMon Và"))
+		})
+
+		It("decodes Windows-1252 specific bytes in the 0x80-0x9F range", func() {
+			// 0x80 is the Euro sign and 0x93/0x94 are curly quotes in Windows-1252,
+			// none of which exist in plain Latin-1.
+			input := []byte{0x80, '5', ' ', 0x93, 'h', 'i', 0x94}
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(string(output)).To(Equal("€5 “hi”"))
+		})
+
+		It("leaves valid multi-byte UTF-8 untouched", func() {
+			// A path that mixes CJK and accented Latin, already valid UTF-8, must
+			// pass through byte-for-byte so real UTF-8 files are never corrupted.
+			input := []byte("收藏/PokéMon Và White.mp3")
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(output).To(Equal(input))
+		})
+
+		It("preserves a genuine U+FFFD present in valid UTF-8", func() {
+			input := []byte("a�b")
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(output).To(Equal(input))
+		})
+
+		It("decodes a byte pair that is coincidentally valid UTF-8 as Windows-1252 when the whole file is not UTF-8", func() {
+			// The file is Windows-1252: "café/£.mp3" where é is 0xE9 and "£" is
+			// the bytes 0xC2 0xA3. That pair alone is valid UTF-8 for "£", but the
+			// standalone 0xE9 makes the file as a whole invalid UTF-8, so the whole
+			// input must be read as Windows-1252 and the pair must become "£".
+			input := []byte{'c', 'a', 'f', 0xE9, '/', 0xC2, 0xA3, '.', 'm', 'p', '3'}
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(string(output)).To(Equal("café/£.mp3"))
+		})
+
+		It("keeps a C2 A3 pair as £ when the whole file is valid UTF-8", func() {
+			// The same byte pair, in a file that is valid UTF-8 throughout, is the
+			// pound sign and must be left alone.
+			input := []byte("cost/£.mp3")
+			reader := UTF8Reader(bytes.NewReader(input))
+
+			output, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(output).To(Equal(input))
+		})
+	})
+
+	Context("when the underlying reader fails", func() {
+		It("surfaces the read error", func() {
+			boom := errors.New("boom")
+			reader := UTF8Reader(io.MultiReader(bytes.NewReader([]byte("abc")), iotest.ErrReader(boom)))
+
+			_, err := io.ReadAll(reader)
+			Expect(err).To(MatchError(boom))
+		})
+	})
 })
 
 var _ = Describe("UTF8ReadFile", func() {