Title: Access to server Last modified: January 22, 2018 --- # Access to server * [Tina](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sunflowermom/) * (@sunflowermom) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/) * I have an extremely maddening problem. I’ll try to write the short version… * I am being paid to rebuild a nonprofit event’s website. The first problem is that whoever did the site before abandoned the project and no one kept the login info for anything. The only access we have to the account is WordPress login. * After finally getting ahold of the current host (and registrar), he says that they never paid for hosting and wants back pay before he’ll do anything….understandable, but WHY did they not hound them for money or shut the site down long ago if they went this long without paying? It’s a little on them for not pursuing it, in my mind. Though I agree, they should pay. * Anyway, this guy appears to not be very cooperative and although he’s given me several FTP login credentials…none of them are working. I’ve tried everything. * So we still have NO access to the server. * And no access to the registration. * So they went and bought a new domain and hosting, and I attempted to do a migration today. Thought it would be no problem…I’m using the UpdraftPlus plugin, which I’ve used before…and then I get this error message: * “The database server that this WordPress site is running on doesn’t support the collation (utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci) used in the database which you are trying to import. You can choose another suitable collation instead and continue with the restoration (at your own risk).” * I got on tech support chat with the host and they say that they cannot upgrade the database for the package we have. And it’s a HUGE increase in fee if we upgrade to something that would have the right database version. * So I’m thinking…get a refund and find a host that has the right database version…. BUT….remember I cannot access the server? I have NO IDEA what version of database we need! * The only thing I know is that the new host is version 5.5.23 and that’s too high. * So I have an email out to the current host, begging for him to tell me what version database that server is…but I don’t hold much hope he’ll be kind and tell me. Probably he’ll want to be paid. And I don’t blame him, really…but we are talking about a nonprofit that just cannot pay chunks of money like this! * ARGH * Anyone have any ideas for me? At least how to figure out what database version it is? I have backup files for the database…surely there’s a way to peek in there and find the info? Or would this file be encrypted? I know very little about databases. - This topic was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/). Reason: updated title Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * [Dipak Gajjar](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dipakcg/) * (@dipakcg) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9887844) * Hi Tina, * Try `ALTER DATABASE` and `ALTER TABLE` MySQL commands under phpMyAdmin (on new hosting). * `ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;` * `ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;` * * Change the _databasename_ and _tablename_ with the appropriate values. * This should do the trick. - This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by [Dipak Gajjar](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dipakcg/). Reason: Updated the commands by fixing little typo * [RossMitchell](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rossmitchell/) * (@rossmitchell) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9887902) * To be specific your character set problem is not so much about the database version, but more the database configuration. For most of us using strictly latin alphabet content, the distinction between characterset colation is quite academic, if you can configure for any other utf8mb4_unicode characterset then you should be OK. * You are quite fortunate to have backups of your database, this will save you from having to re-author the website’s contents. These files are not encoded, if they are a ZIP file then you would extract it and it would then be readable. Depending upon your computer operating system you may be able to search for the utf8mb4 (as distinct from straight ASCII content). * Thread Starter [Tina](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sunflowermom/) * (@sunflowermom) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9894605) * I’m sorting through your responses….trying to figure them out…thank you! I don’t know anything about this problem, so it’s like reading something in a language I don’t speak. * [Dipak Gajjar](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dipakcg/) * (@dipakcg) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9894648) * Hi [@sunflowermom](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sunflowermom/), * Glad I could help. * Could you mark this topic as **_Resolved_** now? * Thread Starter [Tina](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sunflowermom/) * (@sunflowermom) * [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9894823) * Ok, so I tried to just do the restore, using the utf8mb4 thingy that was actually already chosen in the massive dropdown…since you said I could use any other one…. and the problem now is that I cannot change the url in the database because the database no longer looks like a WordPress db. * All the tables are things I don’t recognize…no WP anything…so no WP_options to edit the url in…not only that but when I peek into each table it says they are empty. So I’m guessing something went wrong. SIGH Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘Access to server’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 5 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [Tina](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sunflowermom/) * Last activity: [8 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-help-323/#post-9894823) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics