diff --git a/.github/workflows/github_action_test_suite.yml b/.github/workflows/github_action_test_suite.yml
index 80beeb827e..09730d56c5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/github_action_test_suite.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/github_action_test_suite.yml
@@ -59,10 +59,10 @@ jobs:
           --health-interval 10s
           --health-timeout 5s
           --health-retries 5
-          --charset "utf8mb4"
-          --init_command "set collation_connection=utf8mb4_unicode_ci"
         ports:
           - 3306:3306
+        volumes: 
+          - ${{ github.workspace }}/.github/workflows/mysql_options.cnf:/etc/mysql/conf.d/custom.cnf
 
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
diff --git a/.github/workflows/mysql_options.cnf b/.github/workflows/mysql_options.cnf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..69175ab0da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/mysql_options.cnf
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[mysqld] 
+character-set-server = utf8mb4 
+collation-server = utf9mb4_unicode_ci 
+
+[mysql]
+default-character-set = utf8mb4
+
+[client]
+default-character-set = utf8mb4
diff --git a/.github/workflows/mysql_settings.py b/.github/workflows/mysql_settings.py
index ff9d317af8..975e490c1b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/mysql_settings.py
+++ b/.github/workflows/mysql_settings.py
@@ -46,10 +46,10 @@ DATABASES = {
         "PASSWORD": "evennia",
         "HOST": os.environ.get("MYSQL_HOST", "127.0.0.1"),
         "PORT": os.environ.get("MYSQL_PORT", "3306"),
-#         "OPTIONS": {
-#             "charset": "utf8mb4",
-#             "init_command": "set collation_connection=utf8mb4_unicode_ci",
-#         },
+        "OPTIONS": {
+             "charset": "utf8mb4",
+  #          "init_command": "set collation_connection=utf8mb4_unicode_ci",
+         },
 #         "TEST": {
 #             "NAME": "evennia",
 #             "OPTIONS": {