I have 4 websites running on the same Siteground subscription. I've already updated 3 of them to Joomla 4 and, in the process, did not get any error message from Extensions -> Manage -> Database. However, on this 4th one, whose upkeep I took over more recently, I am getting the message "The Joomla! Core database tables have not been converted yet to UTF-8 Multibyte (utf8mb4)." I tried running the Change Database Collation function of Akeeba Admin Tools Pro, but I still have the same error message.
I read in some previous support tickets that this might be because of the server environment, but I think the environment for this website is the same as that for the other 3 websites that do not give this error.
Do you have any idea as to in which direction I should look to comprehend and resolve this issue?
(I realise that PHP 7.4 is old, but I did the Joomla 4 upgrade with the other websites using this version and then switched to PHP 8.0. The website at https://uk.upf.org/joomla4 is still on Joomla 3 and is identical to the production site. It's a test site I'm using to prepare the upgrade.)
Thanks a lot,
Alan
#38239 UTF-8 Multibyte (utf8mb4)
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Latest post by nicholas on Thursday, 29 December 2022 08:54 CST
Thursday, 29 December 2022 02:25 CST
Thursday, 29 December 2022 03:17 CST
All of the following prior to the upgrade to J4.
First, select Joomla on the Database page and click on Fix.
Then convert the tables to utf8mb4_unicode_ci using Admin Tools.
Ignore any messages complaining about tables not having been converted to UTF8MB4 — the detection code does NOT check the table structure, it checks the #__utf8_conversion table which is the wrong approach.
Upgrade to Joomla 4 and ignore any messages about the tables not being converted to UTF8MB4. As I said, the problem isn't that the tables have not been converted but that Joomla cannot detect it because its detection code is based on the false premise that all tables were plain old UTF8 and could have only possibly been upgraded to UTF8MB4 by Joomla itself during a CMS update which also resulted in #__utf8_conversion table entries being created. Most of these assumptions Joomla makes are wrong for a lot of sites, hence the inapplicable message on those sites. Can't do much about it, I'm afraid.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!
Thursday, 29 December 2022 05:47 CST
Thank you very much, Nicholas, for your reassuring reply, which clarifies the whole thing.
Thursday, 29 December 2022 08:54 CST
You're welcome!
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!