diff --git a/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_hooks.inc.php b/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_hooks.inc.php
index b1d791c394..3bed6efecc 100644
--- a/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_hooks.inc.php
+++ b/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_hooks.inc.php
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ class addressbook_hooks
 				'help'   => 'Which charset should be used for the vCard import and export.',
 				'xmlrpc' => True,
 				'admin'  => false,
-				'default'=> 'iso-8859-1',
+				'default'=> 'utf-8',
 			);
 		}
 		return $settings;
diff --git a/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_vcal.inc.php b/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_vcal.inc.php
index f006514afc..6d0adaa0a8 100644
--- a/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_vcal.inc.php
+++ b/addressbook/inc/class.addressbook_vcal.inc.php
@@ -12,9 +12,10 @@
  * @version $Id$
  */
 
+use EGroupware\Api;
+
 /**
  * Addressbook - vCard parser
- *
  */
 class addressbook_vcal extends addressbook_bo
 {
@@ -555,11 +556,17 @@ class addressbook_vcal extends addressbook_bo
 			$container = false;
 			$vCard = Horde_Icalendar::newComponent('vcard', $container);
 
-			if (!$vCard->parsevCalendar($_vcard, 'VCARD', $charset))
+			if ($charset && $charset != 'utf-8')
+			{
+				$_vcard = Api\Translation::convert($_vcard, $charset, 'utf-8');
+			}
+			if (!$vCard->parsevCalendar($_vcard, 'VCARD'))
 			{
 				return False;
 			}
-		} else {
+		}
+		else
+		{
 			$vCard = $_vcard;
 		}
 		$vcardValues = $vCard->getAllAttributes();
diff --git a/addressbook/js/app.js b/addressbook/js/app.js
index d64fc3defa..88b8a9ff4a 100644
--- a/addressbook/js/app.js
+++ b/addressbook/js/app.js
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ app.classes.addressbook = AppJS.extend(
 				extras.owner.push('c'+ids);
 			}
 		}
-		
+
 		if(orgs.length > 0)
 		{
 			// Get organisation contacts, then show infolog list
@@ -704,13 +704,13 @@ app.classes.addressbook = AppJS.extend(
 	adb_mail_vcard: function(_action, _elems)
 	{
 		var app_registry = egw.link_get_registry('mail');
-		if (typeof app_registry['view'] == 'undefined') app_registry = egw.link_get_registry('felamimail');
 		var link = egw().link("/index.php","menuaction="+app_registry['add']['menuaction']);
 		for (var i = 0; i < _elems.length; i++)
 		{
 			var idToUse = _elems[i].id;
 			var idToUseArray = idToUse.split('::');
 			idToUse = idToUseArray[1];
+			link += "&preset[type][]="+encodeURIComponent("text/vcard; charset="+(egw.preference('vcard_charset', 'addressbook') || 'utf-8'));
 			link += "&preset[file][]="+encodeURIComponent("vfs://default/apps/addressbook/"+idToUse+"/.entry");
 		}
 		if (typeof app_registry['view'] != 'undefined' && typeof app_registry['view_popup'] != 'undefined' )
@@ -903,7 +903,7 @@ app.classes.addressbook = AppJS.extend(
 				break;
 		}
 	},
-	
+
 	/**
 	 * Get title in order to set it as document title
 	 * @returns {string}
diff --git a/api/src/CalDAV/IcalIterator.php b/api/src/CalDAV/IcalIterator.php
index 889861e3d6..9eeffce8ec 100644
--- a/api/src/CalDAV/IcalIterator.php
+++ b/api/src/CalDAV/IcalIterator.php
@@ -253,8 +253,12 @@ class IcalIterator extends Horde_Icalendar implements \Iterator
         	return;
             //return PEAR::raiseError("Unable to create object for type $type");
         }
-		//error_log(__METHOD__."() about to call parsevCalendar('".substr($data,0,100)."...','$type','$this->charset')");
-		$this->component->parsevCalendar($data, $type, $this->charset);
+		if ($this->charset && $this->charset != 'utf-8')
+		{
+			$data = Api\Translation::convert($data, $this->charset, 'utf-8');
+		}
+		//error_log(__METHOD__."() about to call parsevCalendar('".substr($data,0,100)."...','$type')");
+		$this->component->parsevCalendar($data, $type);
 
 		// VTIMEZONE components are NOT returned, they are only processed internally
 		if ($type == 'VTIMEZONE')
diff --git a/api/src/Mail.php b/api/src/Mail.php
index 00e9bb6eaa..f710ebe7c4 100644
--- a/api/src/Mail.php
+++ b/api/src/Mail.php
@@ -5708,11 +5708,10 @@ class Mail
 					if ($part && ($partDisposition=='attachment' || $partDisposition=='inline' || ($part->getPrimaryType() == 'text' && $part->getSubType() == 'calendar')))
 					{
 						//$headerObject=$part->getAllDispositionParameters();//not used anywhere around here
-						$structure_bytes = $part->getBytes();
-						$structure_mime=$part->getType();
-						$structure_partID=$part->getMimeId();
-						$filename=$part->getName();
-						//error_log(__METHOD__.__LINE__." fetchPartContents(".array2string($_uid).", $structure_partID, $_stream, $_preserveSeen,$structure_mime)" );
+						$structure_mime = $part->getType();
+						$filename = $part->getName();
+						$charset = $part->getContentTypeParameter('charset');
+						//$structure_bytes = $part->getBytes(); $structure_partID=$part->getMimeId(); error_log(__METHOD__.__LINE__." fetchPartContents(".array2string($_uid).", $structure_partID, $_stream, $_preserveSeen,$structure_mime)" );
 						$this->fetchPartContents($_uid, $part, $_stream, $_preserveSeen=true,$structure_mime);
 						if ($_returnPart) return $part;
 					}
@@ -5727,8 +5726,8 @@ class Mail
 		}
 		$attachmentData = array(
 			'type'		=> $structure_mime,
+			'charset' => $charset,
 			'filename'	=> $filename,
-			//'attachment'	=> $part->getContents(array('stream'=>$_stream))
 			'attachment'	=> $part->getContents(array(
 				// tnef_decode needs strings not a stream
 				'stream' => $_stream && !($filename == 'winmail.dat' && $_winmail_nr)
diff --git a/api/src/Mailer.php b/api/src/Mailer.php
index 66a9e352f4..355feb5db4 100644
--- a/api/src/Mailer.php
+++ b/api/src/Mailer.php
@@ -321,19 +321,18 @@ class Mailer extends Horde_Mime_Mail
 	 * "text/calendar; method=..." get automatic detected and added as highest priority alternative
 	 *
 	 * @param string|resource $data Path to the attachment or open file-descriptor
-	 * @param string $name     The file name to use for the attachment.
-	 * @param string $type     The content type of the file.
-	 * @param string $charset  The character set of the part, only relevant for text parts.
+	 * @param string $name =null file name to use for the attachment
+	 * @param string $type =null content type of the file, incl. parameters eg. "text/plain; charset=utf-8"
+	 * @param string $old_type =null used to support phpMailer signature (deprecated)
 	 * @return integer part-number
 	 * @throws Exception\NotFound if $file could not be opened for reading
 	 */
-	public function addAttachment($data, $name = null, $type = null, $charset = 'us-ascii')
+	public function addAttachment($data, $name = null, $type = null, $old_type=null)
 	{
 		// deprecated PHPMailer::AddAttachment($path, $name = '', $encoding = 'base64', $type = 'application/octet-stream') call
 		if ($type === 'base64')
 		{
-			$type = $charset;
-			$charset = 'us-ascii';
+			$type = $old_type;
 		}
 
 		// pass file as resource to Horde_Mime_Part::setContent()
@@ -358,6 +357,14 @@ class Mailer extends Horde_Mime_Mail
 
 		$part = new Horde_Mime_Part();
 		$part->setType($type);
+		// set content-type parameters, which get ignored by setType
+		if (preg_match_all('/;\s*([^=]+)=([^;]*)/', $type, $matches))
+		{
+			foreach($matches[1] as $n => $label)
+			{
+				$part->setContentTypeParameter($label, $matches[2][$n]);
+			}
+		}
 		$part->setContents($resource);
 
 		// setting name, also sets content-disposition attachment (!), therefore we have to do it after "text/calendar; method=" handling
@@ -365,7 +372,7 @@ class Mailer extends Horde_Mime_Mail
 
 		// this should not be necessary, because binary data get detected by mime-type,
 		// but at least Cyrus complains about NUL characters
-		$part->setTransferEncoding('base64', array('send' => true));
+		if (substr($type, 0, 5) != 'text/') $part->setTransferEncoding('base64', array('send' => true));
 		$part->setDisposition('attachment');
 
 		return $this->addMimePart($part);
diff --git a/calendar/inc/class.calendar_ical.inc.php b/calendar/inc/class.calendar_ical.inc.php
index cce7cb38d0..baa09a9b81 100644
--- a/calendar/inc/class.calendar_ical.inc.php
+++ b/calendar/inc/class.calendar_ical.inc.php
@@ -2264,7 +2264,11 @@ class calendar_ical extends calendar_boupdate
 
 		$events = array();
 		$vcal = new Horde_Icalendar;
-		if (!$vcal->parsevCalendar($_vcalData, 'VCALENDAR', $charset))
+		if ($charset && $charset != 'utf-8')
+		{
+			$_vcalData = Api\Translation::convert($_vcalData, $charset, 'utf-8');
+		}
+		if (!$vcal->parsevCalendar($_vcalData, 'VCALENDAR'))
 		{
 			if ($this->log)
 			{
diff --git a/infolog/inc/class.infolog_ical.inc.php b/infolog/inc/class.infolog_ical.inc.php
index d0a5cce8c0..489c4f81c6 100644
--- a/infolog/inc/class.infolog_ical.inc.php
+++ b/infolog/inc/class.infolog_ical.inc.php
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ class infolog_ical extends infolog_bo
 						foreach((array)$value as $compvData)
 						{
 							$comp = Horde_Icalendar::newComponent(substr($name,3), $vevent);
-							$comp->parsevCalendar($compvData,substr($name,3),'utf-8');
+							$comp->parsevCalendar($compvData,substr($name,3));
 							$vevent->addComponent($comp);
 						}
 					}
@@ -654,7 +654,11 @@ class infolog_ical extends infolog_bo
 		}
 
 		$vcal = new Horde_Icalendar;
-		if (!($vcal->parsevCalendar($_vcalData, 'VCALENDAR', $charset)))
+		if ($charset && $charset != 'utf-8')
+		{
+			$_vcalData = Api\Translation::convert($_vcalData, $charset, 'utf-8');
+		}
+		if (!($vcal->parsevCalendar($_vcalData, 'VCALENDAR')))
 		{
 			if ($this->log)
 			{
@@ -1096,7 +1100,11 @@ class infolog_ical extends infolog_bo
 
 			case 'text/x-vnote':
 				$vnote = new Horde_Icalendar;
-				if (!$vnote->parsevCalendar($_data, 'VCALENDAR', $charset))	return false;
+				if ($charset && $charset != 'utf-8')
+				{
+					$_data = Api\Translation::convert($_data, $charset, 'utf-8');
+				}
+				if (!$vnote->parsevCalendar($_data, 'VCALENDAR'))	return false;
 
 				$components = $vnote->getComponent();
 				foreach ($components as $component)
diff --git a/mail/inc/class.mail_compose.inc.php b/mail/inc/class.mail_compose.inc.php
index 6081817d4e..cb522689ce 100644
--- a/mail/inc/class.mail_compose.inc.php
+++ b/mail/inc/class.mail_compose.inc.php
@@ -913,6 +913,11 @@ class mail_compose
 							{
 								$name .= '.'.mime_magic::mime2ext($type);
 							}
+							// use type specified by caller, if Vfs reports only default, or contains specified type (eg. "text/vcard; charset=utf-8")
+							if (!empty($types[$k]) && ($type == 'application/octet-stream' || stripos($types[$k], $type) === 0))
+							{
+								$type = $types[$k];
+							}
 							$path = str_replace('+','%2B',$path);
 							$formData = array(
 								'name' => $name,
diff --git a/mail/inc/class.mail_ui.inc.php b/mail/inc/class.mail_ui.inc.php
index 509f3b6ff9..3de000797f 100644
--- a/mail/inc/class.mail_ui.inc.php
+++ b/mail/inc/class.mail_ui.inc.php
@@ -2383,7 +2383,7 @@ $filter['before']= date("d-M-Y", $cutoffdate2);
 				$eventid = $calendar_ical->search($attachment['attachment'],-1);
 				//error_log(__METHOD__.array2string($eventid));
 				if (!$eventid) $eventid = -1;
-				$event = $calendar_ical->importVCal($attachment['attachment'],(is_array($eventid)?$eventid[0]:$eventid),null,true);
+				$event = $calendar_ical->importVCal($attachment['attachment'],(is_array($eventid)?$eventid[0]:$eventid),null,true,0,'',null,$attachment['charset']);
 				//error_log(__METHOD__.$event);
 				if ((int)$event > 0)
 				{
@@ -2401,7 +2401,7 @@ $filter['before']= date("d-M-Y", $cutoffdate2);
 				// double \r\r\n seems to end a vcard prematurely, so we set them to \r\n
 				//error_log(__METHOD__.__LINE__.$attachment['attachment']);
 				$attachment['attachment'] = str_replace("\r\r\n", "\r\n", $attachment['attachment']);
-				$vcard = $addressbook_vcal->vcardtoegw($attachment['attachment']);
+				$vcard = $addressbook_vcal->vcardtoegw($attachment['attachment'], $attachment['charset']);
 				if ($vcard['uid'])
 				{
 					$vcard['uid'] = trim($vcard['uid']);
@@ -2412,7 +2412,7 @@ $filter['before']= date("d-M-Y", $cutoffdate2);
 				// if there are not enough fields in the vcard (or the parser was unable to correctly parse the vcard (as of VERSION:3.0 created by MSO))
 				if ($contact || count($vcard)>2)
 				{
-					$contact = $addressbook_vcal->addVCard($attachment['attachment'],(is_array($contact)?array_shift($contact):$contact),true);
+					$contact = $addressbook_vcal->addVCard($attachment['attachment'],(is_array($contact)?array_shift($contact):$contact),true,$attachment['charset']);
 				}
 				if ((int)$contact > 0)
 				{