Move to a dedicated server / problem with charsets

[KSD]

We just moved from a VPS to a dedicated server.
There we did an update from 5.2.12 to 5.2.14 (both CENTOS 6.5 and same db release, but different provider).
 
Now we have a problem with special characters. Most of our customers come from Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland.
 
The old and the new MySQL db have same collation (utf8mb4_general_ci).

 

Most static data like text for links in admin menu or static data for client are fine, but data in generated emails, access logs, etc., show up as corrupted.

 

Example:

 

At the database table cc_CubeCart_access one can see a column 'user_id' and its content 'Götz'.

See attachment 1.

But if you open CubeCart's admin to have a look on the access log there, you see 'GÄxtz'.

See attachment 2.

 

The apache works with charset UTF-8.

 

I am not a Linux expert but it seems that PHP procedures with access to the database cause our problems.

 

i have no clue how to solve this.

 

Any ideas?

 

We are already a little desperate.

 

Tom

[bsmither]

There is an experiment I would like for you to try. In the two files /classes/db/mysql.class.php and mysqli.class.php, at the bottom, make these edits:

mysql.class.php:
Was:
// Force UTF-8
@mysql_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET NAMES 'utf8'"); // // Bug: Should be @mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'", $this->_db_connect_id); 
@mysql_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'"); // // Bug: Should be @mysql_query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'", $this->_db_connect_id);
Now:
//Force UTF-8
//@mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'", $this->_db_connect_id);
//@mysql_query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'", $this->_db_connect_id);
@mysql_set_charset('utf8', $this->_db_connect_id);
 
mysqli.class.php:
Was:
//Force UTF-8
@mysqli_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET NAMES 'utf8'");
@mysqli_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'");
Now:
//Force UTF-8
//@mysqli_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET NAMES 'utf8'");
//@mysqli_query($this->_db_connect_id, "SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'");
@mysqli_set_charset($this->_db_connect_id, 'utf8');

According to some info I read, using the *_set_charset() function tells PHP, the database, and (most importantly) the connectoid that lets PHP talk to the database to use the specified encoding.
 

[KSD]

I did this, but no change.

 

Shall I reboot the system?

[bsmither]

I think a reboot won't make any difference.