{"id":3137,"date":"2014-03-07T16:25:42","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T21:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/2014\/03\/07\/database-collation\/"},"modified":"2022-03-11T11:40:17","modified_gmt":"2022-03-11T16:40:17","slug":"change-wordpress-database-collation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/support\/edu\/wordpress\/change-wordpress-database-collation\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing your WordPress database collation"},"content":{"rendered":"

If characters are not being stored properly on your WordPress site, or if you are using a different language in which the characters that you entered are not the same as what is being displayed, you may need to change your database collation<\/a>. For example, if you database uses character set that is not utf8_general_ci<\/em>, you will need to tell WordPress to use a different collation. If you need to change the character set of your database as well, take a look at the WordPress codex page on converting your database character sets<\/a>. In this article, we will show you how to define a custom database collation within WordPress.<\/p>\n

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  1. As we will be using the cPanel file manager to edit your wp-config.php<\/em> file, you will need to log into cPanel<\/a> and click on the File Manager<\/strong> icon.<\/li>\n
  2. Next, you will want to navigate the to the root directory of your WordPress installation. Typically, it will be in your public_html<\/em> directory.<\/li>\n
  3. Once you’ve found the wp-config.php<\/em> file, right-click it and click on Code Edit<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  4. Inside this file, locate a link that says:\n

    define( ‘DB_COLLATE’, ” );<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. Within this line, you may set your collation between the two single quotes. For example, it may look something like this:\n

    define( ‘DB_COLLATE’, ‘utf8_general_ci’ );<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  6. Be sure to save your settings when done.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The following are examples of collation that can be used for UTF-8 character sets:<\/p>\n