Private messaging broken after upgrading from 4.2.1 to 5.1.3

[Mark.B]

Thanks for the reply. I have put in a support ticket for the problem.

The installation was not "default" and someone was brought in to "optimize" my server settings......so, yeah....there's that.

That always fills me with dread....especially if it is someone who doesn't know vBulletin....

That said, server optimization shouldn't really be triggering database errors.

[Wrye83]

Thanks for the reply. I have put in a support ticket for the problem.

The installation was not "default" and someone was brought in to "optimize" my server settings......so, yeah....there's that.

[Mark.B]

This shouldn't happen on a default installation.

We'll need to take a look at your setup.
Please raise a support ticket here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/go/techsupport

We'll need:
AdminCP access
FTP/SFTP login

[Wrye83]

When in the notification area of the forum the private message from a user shows but when you click on the message title you get:

An internal error has occurred and the module cannot be displayed.

It does not matter if you are a new user or one that has been carried over during the upgrade from vb 4.2.1.

I am getting two error messages in my email:

 
 Database error in vBulletin 5.1.3:  			Invalid SQL:  					### Channels ### 					SELECT follow.title AS title, follow.nodeid AS keyval, 'node' AS sourcetable, IF(follow.lastcontent = 0, follow.lastupdate, follow.lastcontent) AS lastactivity, 					follow.totalcount AS activity, type.class AS type, 					(follow.nodeoptions & 512) AS noUnsubscribe 					FROM vb_dgtnode AS follow 					INNER JOIN vb_dgtcontenttype AS type ON type.contenttypeid = follow.contenttypeid   					INNER JOIN vb_dgtsubscribediscussion AS sd ON sd.discussionid = follow.nodeid AND sd.userid = 5857  UNION  ALL   					### Users ### 					SELECT follow.username AS title, follow.userid AS keyval, 'user' AS sourcetable, IFNULL(follow.lastpost, follow.joindate) AS lastactivity, 					follow.posts as activity, 'Member' AS type, 					0 AS noUnsubscribe 					FROM vb_dgtuser AS follow 					INNER JOIN vb_dgtuserlist AS ul ON ul.relationid = follow.userid AND ul.userid = 5857 					WHERE ul.type = 'follow' AND ul.friend = 'yes'   ORDER BY title ASC LIMIT 100;  			MySQL Error   : Illegal mix of collations for operation 'UNION' 			Error Number  : 1271 			Request Date  : Friday, September 26th 2014 @ 09:34:33 AM 			Error Date    : Friday, September 26th 2014 @ 09:34:34 AM 			Script        : http:///board/create-content/private-message/ 			Referrer      : http://www.dumagueteinfo.com/board/privatemessage/new/0 			IP Address    : 117.55.194.15 			Username      : Wrye 			Classname     : vB_Database_MySQLi 			MySQL Version :

and

 
 Database error in vBulletin 5.1.3:  			Invalid SQL: SELECT node.*, IFNULL(u.username, node.authorname) AS username, cl.depth, t.pagetext, t.rawtext, t.previewtext, 				pm.msgtype, pm.about, pm.aboutid, s.msgread 				FROM vb_dgtnode AS node 				INNER JOIN vb_dgtclosure AS cl ON cl.child = node.nodeid 				LEFT JOIN vb_dgtuser AS u ON u.userid = node.userid 				INNER JOIN vb_dgttext AS t ON t.nodeid = node.nodeid 				INNER JOIN vb_dgtprivatemessage AS pm ON pm.nodeid = node.nodeid 				INNER JOIN vb_dgtsentto AS s ON s.nodeid = node.nodeid 				WHERE cl.parent = 186205 AND s.userid = 10760 				ORDER BY cl.depth, node.publishdate /**getPrivateMessageTree**/;  			MySQL Error   : Illegal mix of collations (latin1_general_ci,IMPLICIT) and (latin1_swedish_ci,IMPLICIT) for operation 'ifnull' 			Error Number  : 1267 			Request Date  : Friday, September 26th 2014 @ 09:38:36 AM 			Error Date    : Friday, September 26th 2014 @ 09:38:37 AM 			Script        : http:///board/privatemessage/view/186205?folderid=5961 			Referrer      : http://www.dumagueteinfo.com/board/p...ge/list/5961/1 			IP Address    : 117.55.194.15 			Username      : Wrye 			Classname     : vB_Database_MySQLi 			MySQL Version :

I have tried to set the charset in the Language Settings in the admincp to UTF-8 to mach the charset in config.php located in /core/includes and I have tried to set the config.php to ISO-8859-1 to match the original Language Settings in the admincp (ISO-8859-1). Neither of these have worked.

I am completely new to anything web related and have been trying to research this through Google to do it myself but have came up empty. I am guessing that these databases have their own charset set and I need to change them to match the admincp/config.php. I cannot seem to locate the vb_dgtnode or vb_dgtuser databases to attempt to edit them. If I am climbing the right tree can someone please provide the path that these dbs reside so that I may edit them?

If I am going in the completely wrong direction could someone point me in the right direction on what the problem might be?