Laravel 11 SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1273 Unknown collation: 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'

After installing laravel 11, if you get Laravel 11 SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1273 Unknown collation: ‘utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci’ error, then this is how you can fix the issue.

1. Open config/database.php file. (if config is not there, then publish by php artisan config:publish)
2. Go to connections.mysql then update:

        'mysql' => [
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'url' => env('DB_URL'),
            'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
            'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'laravel'),
            'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'root'),
            'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
            'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
            'charset' => env('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4'),
-            'collation' => env('DB_COLLATION', 'utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci'),
+            'collation' => env('DB_COLLATION', 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'),
            'prefix' => '',
            'prefix_indexes' => true,
            'strict' => true,
            'engine' => null,
            'options' => extension_loaded('pdo_mysql') ? array_filter([
                PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => env('MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA'),
            ]) : [],
        ],

It should solve your issue.

Thanks.