General help

@Kate

Not 'stupid' at all!   No such questions are 'stupid' - stupid questions are the questions one doesn't ask!!!

Run it from the moodle code directory.   If remotely hosted that could be in /home/customerlogin/public_hmtl/  ... or even a moodle directory of that path.

Or could be in /var/www/html/

So it depends on where and how hosted.

Got cPanel?   Use it to explore the location of moodle code and files contained therein.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

You run it through the command line... like you would with "DOS" command line.

make sure you are using the correct php version you are using...

you can check that if you have access to the command line (aka terminal prompt), by entering "which php" without the quotes. That will show you the full path of the php you are using.

To be safe, I would fully qualify the path of the scripts you want to run so there less chance of an error.

For example, instead of running:

$>  php admin/cli/mysql_collation.php --collation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

I would do this instead and replace the italicized and bolded text with yours.

$>  /where/your/php/is/located/php   /where/your/moodle/folder/is/located/admin/cli/mysql_collation.php --collation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

This would eliminate any errors so you can run it in any folder you are currently in.

Good luck

I upgraded from 3.3.6 to 3.11.3 (in stages, not all at once - 3.4, 3.5, 3.6... etc). 

I am on a shared server, so I am unable to run the (apparently very helpful) moodle scripts that have been described here. I also cannot use Putty or SSH to access my host server, or edit the etc/my.cnf files.

I have cPanel and phpMyAdmin so I make all of my database adjustments through those. 

I had the same exact error as has been described here. It took a lot of hours of searching, but I was able to resolve it with the following methods. 

1) Go in through phpMyAdmin and choose Operations. At the bottom, there will be a "Collation" area with a dropdown list of options to change your tables to. Choose utf8mb4_unicode_ci.
(If links are allowed, I found a detailed description here: https://mariushosting.com/phpmyadmin-how-to-convert-utf8_general_ci-database-to-utf8mb4_unicode_ci/) 

2) I also ran this as a sql query (link to source is below). Use at your own risk, but I believe it helped me. 

****

SELECT
    /* Disable foreign key checks temporily to be able to make these changes */
    'SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0;' AS alter_statement 
UNION SELECT 
    /* Alter the default character set of each database */
    CONCAT('ALTER DATABASE `', SCHEMA_NAME,'` CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;') AS alter_statement 
FROM 
    information_schema.SCHEMATA 
WHERE 
    DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET_NAME!='utf8mb4' AND 
    SCHEMA_NAME NOT IN('mysql','information_schema','performance_schema','sys')
UNION SELECT
    /* Alter the default character set of each table .
      This also converts all text columns in the table,
      So there is no need to have a statement to alter each
      column individually */
    DISTINCT CONCAT('ALTER TABLE `', TABLE_SCHEMA,'`.`',TABLE_NAME, '` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;') AS alter_statement 
FROM
(
    SELECT
        /* Find all tables with a text column that isn't utf8mb4 */
        TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME
    FROM
        information_schema.COLUMNS 
    WHERE
        TABLE_SCHEMA NOT IN('mysql','information_schema','performance_schema','sys') AND 
        CHARACTER_SET_NAME IS NOT NULL AND 
        CHARACTER_SET_NAME!='utf8mb4'
    UNION SELECT
        /* Also find all tables that don't have the correct default character set */
        TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME
    FROM 
        information_schema.TABLES AS T
    JOIN 
        information_schema.`COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY` AS C ON C.collation_name = T.table_collation
    WHERE 
        CHARACTER_SET_NAME!='utf8mb4' AND 
        TABLE_SCHEMA NOT IN('mysql','information_schema','performance_schema','sys')
) AS TABLE_UPDATES
UNION SELECT
    /* Re-enable forign key checks */
    'SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1;' AS alter_statement 
;

https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/257962/upgrade-all-mysql-columns-tables-and-databases-from-utf8mb3-to-utf8mb4

@Miguel

Really dunno what to tell ya, cept mnethost has been a problem in the past.  It just happened to rear it's ugly head now for some reason. :|

But, good that you used your head ... didn't panic ... and did the alter.

Alls well that ends well, right?

'spirit of sharing', Ken