How to change MySQL database collation using Adminer plugin

The adminer plugin by Frank Bültge has been discontinued. Here is an alternative: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ari-adminer/ – the steps outlined are identical with ARI Adminer.

When using WordPress in a non-english version, problems with the character set of your output can arise. German for example has these special characters called “Umlaute” -> Ä Ü Ö

Your database must be set to handle these kind of special characters. In my experience this is done best by setting the database collation to:

utf8_general_ci

The screenshot above shows the database collation setting.

In case your database collation needs editing, here is a quick example on how to do this using the fabolous adminer plugin by Frank Bültge:

GIF

View animation in full size.

Tampering with your database the wrong way will result in an instant crash of your site. Backup your database beforehand.