ESP-IDF monitor outputting garbage symbols

I have an ESP32-WROVER devkit which I've been using on and off for a few hobby projects.
I've got an IDF clone and am using VSCode with the ESP-IDF extension.

Today, I suddenly started getting garbage symbols on the monitor, which I was relying on to debug.

Looks like so:

xx�xx��������x������x�����xx�x�xx�x�������x�x�x��x��x���xxxx����������������������������x�����x�x���x��x���x��xx��xxxx�x��x�xx��xxx�xxxx�xx�x�x��x���x�����x��xxx�xx�xx�xxxx��xx�x�xx�x�x�xx�xx��x�x�x�x

Naturally, I assume it's a UART issue, but I'm uncertain where to go to check the setup.
I am quite unfamiliar with the settings.

I'm using git, so I tried to see if any of the sdkconfig.defaults changed like CONFIG_ESP_CONSOLE_UART_BAUDRATE.

My assumtion is that something changed in the IDF setup.

(edit):

Solved.

I used Termite to connect to the COM port at 115200 baud, and the output was sensible. After some puzzling around, I found that the VScode ESP-IDF extension controls the monitor baud rate if you're using the command palette. Under Settings > Extensions > ESP-IDF > Idf : Monitor Baud Rate

I'm still confused as to how this setting was changed without my input, it literally happened over-night. Oh well...

I think vscode extension version v1.6.2 causes this error. It released recently and probably auto updated.
It ignores all settings about monitor baudrate and override it to 460800.

Downgrade to previous version should fix this issue.

Open espressif extension page. You will see "install another version" if you click arrow next to uninstall. choose v1.6.1

For v1.6.2 I had to add "idf.monitorBaudRate": "115200", in settings.json and then rebuild the project. Then the monitor worked fine again.