diff --git a/src/main/java/ru/tehkode/permissions/backends/sql/SQLBackend.java b/src/main/java/ru/tehkode/permissions/backends/sql/SQLBackend.java
index 4a7319518..b09e01c1b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/ru/tehkode/permissions/backends/sql/SQLBackend.java
+++ b/src/main/java/ru/tehkode/permissions/backends/sql/SQLBackend.java
@@ -128,9 +128,6 @@ public void performUpdate() throws PermissionBackendException {
 				// Change collation for all columns to utf8mb4_general_ci
 				try (SQLConnection conn = getSQL()) {
 					conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions}` DROP KEY `unique`, MODIFY COLUMN `permission` TEXT NOT NULL").execute();
-					conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
-					conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions_entity}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
-					conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions_inheritance}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
 				} catch (SQLException | IOException e) {
 					throw new PermissionBackendException(e);
 				}
@@ -194,6 +191,14 @@ public void performUpdate() throws PermissionBackendException {
 		this.setupAliases();
 		this.deployTables();
 		performSchemaUpdate();
+
+		try (SQLConnection conn = getSQL()) {
+			conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
+			conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions_entity}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
+			conn.prep("ALTER TABLE `{permissions_inheritance}` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci").execute();
+		} catch (SQLException | IOException e) {
+			// Ignore, this MySQL version just doesn't support it.
+		}
 	}
 
 	@Override
@@ -557,6 +562,7 @@ private void writeTable(String table, SQLConnection conn, Writer writer) throws
 
 	@Override
 	public void close() throws PermissionBackendException {
+		super.close();
 		if (ds != null) {
 			try {
 				ds.close();
@@ -564,7 +570,6 @@ public void close() throws PermissionBackendException {
 				throw new PermissionBackendException("Error while closing", e);
 			}
 		}
-		super.close();
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/src/main/resources/sql/mysql/deploy.sql b/src/main/resources/sql/mysql/deploy.sql
index a28d0794d..cd0312bc9 100644
--- a/src/main/resources/sql/mysql/deploy.sql
+++ b/src/main/resources/sql/mysql/deploy.sql
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{permissions}` (
   #UNIQUE KEY `unique` (`name`,`permission`,`world`,`type`),
   KEY `user` (`name`,`type`),
   KEY `world` (`world`,`name`,`type`)
-) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
+) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
 
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{permissions_entity}` (
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{permissions_entity}` (
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
   UNIQUE KEY `name` (`name`, `type`),
   KEY `default` (`default`)
-) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
+) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{permissions_inheritance}` (
   `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
@@ -32,4 +32,4 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `{permissions_inheritance}` (
   UNIQUE KEY `child` (`child`,`parent`,`type`,`world`),
   KEY `child_2` (`child`,`type`),
   KEY `parent` (`parent`,`type`)
-) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
+) DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;