diff --git a/lightrag/utils.py b/lightrag/utils.py
index 8ebdf9a2..c696c110 100644
--- a/lightrag/utils.py
+++ b/lightrag/utils.py
@@ -1995,8 +1995,8 @@ def sanitize_text_for_encoding(text: str, replacement_char: str = "") -> str:
         # Unescape HTML escapes
         sanitized = html.unescape(sanitized)
 
-        # Remove control characters
-        sanitized = re.sub(r"[\x00-\x1f\x7f-\x9f]", "", sanitized)
+        # Remove control characters but preserve common whitespace (\t, \n, \r)
+        sanitized = re.sub(r"[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x7F-\x9F]", "", sanitized)
 
         return sanitized.strip()