SQL Agent messing up special characters in connection string

I´m exporting to a flat file that resides in a path which unfortunately contains the german special character "ß" in it´s name.

This works fine from Visual Studio but from the deployed package I get an error that the path cannot be found. The path itself is mentioned in the agent´s error log, but messed up at the "ß". I have already asserted that it´s not a file system authorization issue. Also I tried to make sure that the variable value, holding the path, is unicode by converting it with (DT_WSTR).

Strange enough, the solution has been working without problems before. All of a sudden it ran into this error. I´m not sure if any changes have been applied on the server, but I don´t think so.

It's working for me, so perhaps something else is awry with your situation.

I created a simple SSIS Package that exports to a flat file with current date.

I created a Package level parameter ExtractFile and pointed it to a non-german named path of C:\ssisdata\so\output\so_67284139.txt

The Flat File Connection manager has an f(x) glpyh on it because I have defined an Expression on the ConnectionString to be the PackageParameter ExtractFile. This allows me to change the export path at run-time.

I created two jobs. One that ran the package as-is and the second that exports to the eszett^* path.

No German job

DECLARE @ReturnCode int;
DECLARE @jobId binary(16);
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job
    @job_name = N'NoGermans'
,   @enabled = 1
,   @notify_level_eventlog = 0
,   @notify_level_email = 0
,   @notify_level_netsend = 0
,   @notify_level_page = 0
,   @delete_level = 0
,   @description = N'No description available.'
,   @category_name = N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'
,   @owner_login_name = N'sa'
,   @job_id = @jobId OUTPUT;

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep
    @job_id = @jobId
,   @step_name = N'Run package'
,   @step_id = 1
,   @cmdexec_success_code = 0
,   @on_success_action = 1
,   @on_success_step_id = 0
,   @on_fail_action = 2
,   @on_fail_step_id = 0
,   @retry_attempts = 0
,   @retry_interval = 0
,   @os_run_priority = 0
,   @subsystem = N'SSIS'
,   @command = N'/ISSERVER "\"\SSISDB\So\SO_German\SO_67284139.dtsx\"" /SERVER "\".\dev2017\"" /Par "\"$ServerOption::LOGGING_LEVEL(Int16)\"";1 /Par "\"$ServerOption::SYNCHRONIZED(Boolean)\"";True /CALLERINFO SQLAGENT /REPORTING E'
,   @database_name = N'master'
,   @flags = 0;

Yes German job - relevant piece is the assignment of parameter like /Par ExtractFile;"\"C:\ssisdata\so\output\so_67284139_ß\so_67284139.txt\"

DECLARE @ReturnCode int;
DECLARE @jobId binary(16);
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job
    @job_name = N'ZeeGermans'
,   @enabled = 1
,   @notify_level_eventlog = 0
,   @notify_level_email = 0
,   @notify_level_netsend = 0
,   @notify_level_page = 0
,   @delete_level = 0
,   @description = N'No description available.'
,   @category_name = N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'
,   @owner_login_name = N'sa'
,   @job_id = @jobId OUTPUT;

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep
    @job_id = @jobId
,   @step_name = N'Run package'
,   @step_id = 1
,   @cmdexec_success_code = 0
,   @on_success_action = 1
,   @on_success_step_id = 0
,   @on_fail_action = 2
,   @on_fail_step_id = 0
,   @retry_attempts = 0
,   @retry_interval = 0
,   @os_run_priority = 0
,   @subsystem = N'SSIS'
,   @command = N'/ISSERVER "\"\SSISDB\So\SO_German\SO_67284139.dtsx\"" /SERVER "\".\dev2017\"" /Par ExtractFile;"\"C:\ssisdata\so\output\so_67284139_ß\so_67284139.txt\"" /Par "\"$ServerOption::LOGGING_LEVEL(Int16)\"";1 /Par "\"$ServerOption::SYNCHRONIZED(Boolean)\"";True /CALLERINFO SQLAGENT /REPORTING E'
,   @database_name = N'master'
,   @flags = 0;

Both jobs ran and created files as expected

C:\ssisdata\so\output>dir /s *.txt
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 3AB8-1C01

 Directory of C:\ssisdata\so\output

04/27/2021  10:01 AM                39 so_67284139.txt
               1 File(s)             39 bytes

 Directory of C:\ssisdata\so\output\so_67284139_ß

04/27/2021  10:01 AM                39 so_67284139.txt
               1 File(s)             39 bytes

My best guess is that some piece of your setup or execution is using varchar data type of the path instead of nvarchar but we'd need to see the guts of the package and your SQL Agent job definition. Or you can true up against my reproduction

^*Maybe I should have called it sharfes? Ich spreche kein Deutsch.