diff --git a/src/services/import/samples/UTF-16LE Text Note.md b/src/services/import/samples/UTF-16LE Text Note.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a0fec98d6
Binary files /dev/null and b/src/services/import/samples/UTF-16LE Text Note.md differ
diff --git a/src/services/import/single.spec.ts b/src/services/import/single.spec.ts
index 6e35ebe1a..74b4746ab 100644
--- a/src/services/import/single.spec.ts
+++ b/src/services/import/single.spec.ts
@@ -72,4 +72,10 @@ describe("processNoteContent", () => {
         expect(importedNote.mime).toBe("text/html");
         expect(importedNote.getContent().toString()).toBe("<p>Plain text goes here.<br></p>");
     });
+
+    it("supports markdown note with UTF-16", async () => {
+        const { importedNote } = await testImport("UTF-16LE Text Note.md", "text/markdown");
+        expect(importedNote.mime).toBe("text/html");
+        expect(importedNote.getContent().toString()).toBe("<h2>Hello world</h2>\n<p>Plain text goes here.</p>\n");
+    });
 })
diff --git a/src/services/import/single.ts b/src/services/import/single.ts
index f55c84bfc..85bd3d48a 100644
--- a/src/services/import/single.ts
+++ b/src/services/import/single.ts
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ function convertTextToHtml(text: string) {
 function importMarkdown(taskContext: TaskContext, file: File, parentNote: BNote) {
     const title = getNoteTitle(file.originalname, !!taskContext.data?.replaceUnderscoresWithSpaces);
 
-    const markdownContent = file.buffer.toString("utf-8");
+    const markdownContent = processStringOrBuffer(file.buffer);
     let htmlContent = markdownService.renderToHtml(markdownContent, title);
 
     if (taskContext.data?.safeImport) {