MySQL UTF-8

The MySQL database tables should have a character set of UTF8 and a collation of utf8_unicode_ci to support encodings of special characters used in languages.

The list of character sets currently used in the database tables can be seen in the Administration Tool -> Tools -> Database Tables page.

Administration Tool -> Tools -> Database Tables

This page shows information on all tables available in the database, including:

  • Table name
  • Number of rows
  • Size
  • Engine type
  • Collation (character set)

Actions can be performed on all or selected tables, including:

  • Check Tables
  • Analyze Tables
  • Optimize Tables
  • Repair Tables
  • Convert to UTF8

Tables that do not have a utf8_unicode_ci collation can be converted to UTF-8 by using the Convert to UTF8 action.

Info When performing actions on database tables, please select a few tables at a time as actions take longer to perform on larger tables.
Note When converting database tables to UTF-8, MySQL will automatically increase the size of varchar and text fields to ensure existing data is not truncated (eg, text fields will be converted to mediumtext).
Warning Please be sure to have an up-to-date backup of your database before performing actions on database tables, especially if tables are to be converted to UTF-8.