diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b9550a7fd4..3abc6f298b 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ before_script:
   - cp .travis/${TESTING_DB}_settings.py testing_mygame/server/conf/settings.py
   - cd testing_mygame
   - evennia migrate
-  - mysql -u root -e "ALTER TABLE accounts_accountdb CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;" evennia
   - evennia collectstatic --noinput
 
 script:
diff --git a/.travis/mysql_settings.py b/.travis/mysql_settings.py
index c4ec79d0e6..b0abfb8519 100644
--- a/.travis/mysql_settings.py
+++ b/.travis/mysql_settings.py
@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ DATABASES = {
             'NAME': 'default',
             'OPTIONS': {
                 'charset': 'utf8mb4',
-                'init_command': 'set collation_connection=utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
+                # 'init_command': 'set collation_connection=utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
+                'init_command': "SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'"
             }
         }
     }