diff --git a/playbooks/roles/etherpad/files/my.cnf b/playbooks/roles/etherpad/files/my.cnf
index 1acadc95f2..a5c25c575f 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/etherpad/files/my.cnf
+++ b/playbooks/roles/etherpad/files/my.cnf
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [client]
 # Default is Latin1, if you need UTF-8 set this (also in server section)
-default-character-set = utf8
+default-character-set = utf8mb4
 
 [mysqld]
 wait_timeout = 28800
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ wait_timeout = 28800
 #
 # Default is Latin1, if you need UTF-8 set all this (also in client section)
 #
-character-set-server  = utf8
-collation-server      = utf8_bin
-character_set_server   = utf8
-collation_server       = utf8_bin
+character-set-server  = utf8mb4
+collation-server      = utf8mb4_bin
+character_set_server   = utf8mb4
+collation_server       = utf8mb4_bin
diff --git a/playbooks/roles/etherpad/templates/settings.json.j2 b/playbooks/roles/etherpad/templates/settings.json.j2
index cfdbc01bb4..a3850ef091 100644
--- a/playbooks/roles/etherpad/templates/settings.json.j2
+++ b/playbooks/roles/etherpad/templates/settings.json.j2
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
                    "user"    : "{{ etherpad_db_user }}",
                    "host"    : "localhost",
                    "password": "{{ etherpad_db_password }}",
+                   "charset" : "utf8mb4",
                    "database": "etherpad-lite"
                  },
   //the default text of a pad