diff --git a/go/vt/sidecardb/schema/vreplication/schema_version.sql b/go/vt/sidecardb/schema/vreplication/schema_version.sql
index 2b7cbc08dec..ac28f036eec 100644
--- a/go/vt/sidecardb/schema/vreplication/schema_version.sql
+++ b/go/vt/sidecardb/schema/vreplication/schema_version.sql
@@ -22,4 +22,4 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS schema_version
     ddl          BLOB DEFAULT NULL,
     schemax      LONGBLOB         NOT NULL,
     PRIMARY KEY (id)
-) ENGINE = InnoDB
+) ENGINE = InnoDB, CHARSET utf8mb4
diff --git a/go/vt/sidecardb/sidecardb.go b/go/vt/sidecardb/sidecardb.go
index 0947355cd46..c8322af351f 100644
--- a/go/vt/sidecardb/sidecardb.go
+++ b/go/vt/sidecardb/sidecardb.go
@@ -396,7 +396,6 @@ func (si *schemaInit) getCurrentSchema(tableName string) (string, error) {
 // or an ALTER if the table exists but has a different schema.
 func (si *schemaInit) findTableSchemaDiff(tableName, current, desired string) (string, error) {
 	hints := &schemadiff.DiffHints{
-		TableCharsetCollateStrategy: schemadiff.TableCharsetCollateIgnoreAlways,
 		AlterTableAlgorithmStrategy: schemadiff.AlterTableAlgorithmStrategyCopy,
 	}
 	env := schemadiff.NewEnv(si.env, si.coll)