| Problem | Solution | |---------|----------| | .prj missing, coordinate system unknown | Manually set CRS to EPSG:4326 (WGS84). | | Attribute text looks garbled (e.g., “Côte”) | Encoding issue. Open Shapefile with UTF-8 or use .cpg file. In QGIS, set “Data source encoding” to UTF-8. | | Multiple files for Level 0, 1, 2 – which one to use? | Use gadm36_COUNTRYCODE_0.shp for borders, _1 for states, _2 for districts. GeoPackage contains all layers. | | Cannot dissolve internal boundaries (e.g., show only country outline) | Use on Level 1 features, or simply re-load Level 0. | | File size too big for memory | Use GeoPackage with spatial indexing, or filter by attribute before loading. |