latin-1 to utf-8 database
You could try SET NAMES to let the Database talk in latin-1 with your application while storing in utf-8 or you will need to convert all previous Datasets to utf-8-Strings
try
ALTER DATABASE your_db DEFAULT CHARACTER SET = 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';and
ALTER TABLE a CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';ALTER TABLE b CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';ALTER TABLE c CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';don't forget to replace the 'ß':
UPDATE a SET field_1 = REPLACE(field_1, 'ß', 'ss') WHERE label LIKE '%ß%';
http://blog.hno3.org/2010/04/22/fixing-double-encoded-utf-8-data-in-mysql/
Using what is listed here has fixed all my problems. I used this with my live data and have had no issues!