diff --git a/php/database/albums_table.sql b/php/database/albums_table.sql
index aae367a..3ebce1a 100644
--- a/php/database/albums_table.sql
+++ b/php/database/albums_table.sql
@@ -11,4 +11,4 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `lychee_albums` (
   `visible` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
   `password` varchar(100) DEFAULT '',
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
\ No newline at end of file
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/php/database/photos_table.sql b/php/database/photos_table.sql
index 93dbd2c..9f73be8 100644
--- a/php/database/photos_table.sql
+++ b/php/database/photos_table.sql
@@ -26,4 +26,4 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `lychee_photos` (
   `album` varchar(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `import_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT '',
   PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
\ No newline at end of file
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/php/database/settings_table.sql b/php/database/settings_table.sql
index c987037..78d4f40 100644
--- a/php/database/settings_table.sql
+++ b/php/database/settings_table.sql
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `lychee_settings` (
   `key` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
   `value` varchar(200) DEFAULT ''
-) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
\ No newline at end of file
+) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/php/modules/Database.php b/php/modules/Database.php
index e39d9a6..c7b1676 100755
--- a/php/modules/Database.php
+++ b/php/modules/Database.php
@@ -19,8 +19,9 @@ class Database extends Module {
 		# Check connection
 		if ($database->connect_errno) exit('Error: ' . $database->connect_error);
 
-		# Avoid sql injection on older MySQL versions
+		# Avoid sql injection on older MySQL versions by using GBK
 		if ($database->server_version<50500) $database->set_charset('GBK');
+		else $database->set_charset("utf8");
 
 		# Check database
 		if (!$database->select_db($name))