Find mysql configuration file. On Ubuntu system in is located at __/etc/mysql/my.cnf__
In this file specify
```
[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8mb4
[mysqld]
character-set-server=utf8mb4
collation-server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
```
Now restart mysql server
```
service mysql restart
```
Now you can check encoding. At first log into mysql. Then type
```
show variables like '%char%';
```
In the existing database change the table and column encoding to __utf8mb4__
```
ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
``` In the connection string to database __DO NOT SPECIFY__ character encoding because it can override database values from config file