How to change the collation to make mysql case insensitive

Question

I found out that when I query one of my tables it is case sensitive, so I tried to change the collation (I'm using Workbench in windows). I

    right clicked on the table -> alter table -> collation 
-> changed from utf8mb4_default to utf8mb4_general_ci

But it didn't work and the queries are still case sensitive. and when I

right click on the table -> alter table -> collation 

is utf8mb4_default

and when I change it to utf8mb4_general_ci again, and apply the change, it says no changes detected!

The column type is VARBINARY, I tried this:

MySQL case insensitive search on varbinary field?

but it takes a lot of time, it is not acceptable.

This is t create statement:

CREATE TABLE `page` (
  `page_id` int(8) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `page_namespace` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_title` varbinary(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `page_restrictions` tinyblob NOT NULL,
  `page_counter` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_is_redirect` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_is_new` tinyint(1) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_random` double unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_touched` varbinary(14) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `page_links_updated` varbinary(14) DEFAULT NULL,
  `page_latest` int(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_len` int(8) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  `page_content_model` varbinary(32) DEFAULT NULL,      
  PRIMARY KEY (`page_id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `name_title` (`page_namespace`,`page_title`),
  KEY `page_random` (`page_random`),
  KEY `page_len` (`page_len`),
  KEY `page_redirect_namespace_len` (`page_is_redirect`,`page_namespace`,`page_len`),
  KEY `idx_page_page_is_new` (`page_is_new`),
  KEY `idx_page_page_title_is_new` (`page_title`,`page_is_new`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=44062999 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;

Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

Looks like you have the following options:

1. Convert your binary column to a none binary text column, using a temp column because binary columns cannot be case in-sensitive
2. Use the Convert function as the link you mentioned
3. Use the Lower or Upper methods

If you really want the column be always case in-sensitive, I'd say go for option 1.