diff --git a/synapse/app/homeserver.py b/synapse/app/homeserver.py
index fbc9a43d66..a47e548d66 100755
--- a/synapse/app/homeserver.py
+++ b/synapse/app/homeserver.py
@@ -363,7 +363,6 @@ def setup(config_options):
 
     db_config = {
         k: v for k, v in db_config.items()
-        if not k.startswith("cp_")
     }
 
     name = db_config.get("name", None)
@@ -372,7 +371,7 @@ def setup(config_options):
             "sql_mode": "TRADITIONAL",
             "charset": "utf8mb4",
             "use_unicode": True,
-            "collation": "utf8mb4_general_ci",
+            "collation": "utf8mb4_bin",
         })
     elif name == "sqlite3":
         db_config.setdefault("args", {}).update({
diff --git a/synapse/storage/engines/maria.py b/synapse/storage/engines/maria.py
index c934376930..90165f6849 100644
--- a/synapse/storage/engines/maria.py
+++ b/synapse/storage/engines/maria.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class MariaEngine(object):
     def prepare_database(self, db_conn):
         cur = db_conn.cursor()
         cur.execute(
-            "ALTER DATABASE CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci"
+            "ALTER DATABASE CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_bin"
         )
         db_conn.commit()
         prepare_database(db_conn, self)