diff --git a/src/Platforms/MariaDBPlatform.php b/src/Platforms/MariaDBPlatform.php
index c83bc104e4a..d32ba12e07e 100644
--- a/src/Platforms/MariaDBPlatform.php
+++ b/src/Platforms/MariaDBPlatform.php
@@ -169,6 +169,7 @@ protected function createReservedKeywordsList(): KeywordList
      * {@inheritDoc}
      *
      * @link https://mariadb.com/kb/en/unicode/
+     * @link https://mariadb.com/kb/en/old-mode/
      */
     public function informationSchemaUsesUtf8mb3(Connection $connection): bool
     {
@@ -176,6 +177,8 @@ public function informationSchemaUsesUtf8mb3(Connection $connection): bool
             return false;
         }
 
-        return ! $connection->fetchOne('SELECT @old_mode');
+        $old_mode = (string) $connection->fetchOne('SELECT @old_mode');
+
+        return ! str_contains($old_mode, 'UTF8_IS_UTF8MB3');
     }
 }
diff --git a/tests/Platforms/MySQL/ComparatorTest.php b/tests/Platforms/MySQL/ComparatorTest.php
index 64e73f6ccf3..e8ecad8101e 100644
--- a/tests/Platforms/MySQL/ComparatorTest.php
+++ b/tests/Platforms/MySQL/ComparatorTest.php
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ public function testUtf8AndUtf8mb3Mismatches(bool $useUtf8mb3, string $defaultCh
         self::assertNotEmpty($utf8Comparator->compareTables($table6, $table5)->getModifiedColumns());
     }
 
-    /** @return array{bool,string}[] */
+    /** @return iterable<array{bool,string}> */
     public static function utf8AndUtf8mb3MismatchesProvider(): iterable
     {
         yield [false, 'utf8'];