diff --git a/backend.php b/backend.php
index 24f3bba3b..c5757a2ff 100644
--- a/backend.php
+++ b/backend.php
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query("set client_encoding = 'UTF-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
 
 	$op = $_REQUEST["op"];
diff --git a/opml.php b/opml.php
index b1a62ab8c..ac236a64b 100644
--- a/opml.php
+++ b/opml.php
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query($link, "set client_encoding = 'utf-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
 
 	login_sequence($link);
diff --git a/update.php b/update.php
index 8daacc969..e15e3be00 100644
--- a/update.php
+++ b/update.php
@@ -13,8 +13,11 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query($link, "set client_encoding = 'utf-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
-	
+
 	login_sequence($link);
 	
 	$owner_uid = $_SESSION["uid"];
diff --git a/update_daemon.php b/update_daemon.php
index b7a511688..25ef6a993 100644
--- a/update_daemon.php
+++ b/update_daemon.php
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query("set client_encoding = 'utf-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
 
 	$last_purge = 0;
diff --git a/update_feeds.php b/update_feeds.php
index 32635b824..aa07321e6 100644
--- a/update_feeds.php
+++ b/update_feeds.php
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query("set client_encoding = 'utf-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
 
 	$result = db_query($link, "SELECT id FROM ttrss_users");
diff --git a/xml-rpc.php b/xml-rpc.php
index 8c65123f8..d61382c08 100644
--- a/xml-rpc.php
+++ b/xml-rpc.php
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@
 	if (DB_TYPE == "pgsql") {
 		pg_query("set client_encoding = 'utf-8'");
 		pg_set_client_encoding("UNICODE");
+	} else {
+		db_query($link, "SET NAMES utf8");
+		db_query($link, "SET CHARACTER SET utf8");
 	}
 
 	function getVirtualFeeds($msg) {