diff --git a/tools/backup_db/backup.sh b/tools/backup_db/backup.sh
index a616b539cc..cd2b88c7a1 100755
--- a/tools/backup_db/backup.sh
+++ b/tools/backup_db/backup.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 set -euo pipefail
 
-docker run --rm --network fleet_default mysql:5.7 bash -c 'mysqldump -hmysql -uroot -ptoor fleet | gzip -' > backup.sql.gz
+docker run --rm --network fleet_default mysql:5.7 bash -c 'mysqldump -hmysql -uroot -ptoor --default-character-set=utf8mb4 fleet | gzip -' > backup.sql.gz