diff --git a/configs/development.ini b/configs/development.ini
--- a/configs/development.ini
+++ b/configs/development.ini
@@ -614,7 +614,6 @@ sqlalchemy.db1.echo = false
 
 ; recycle the connections after this amount of seconds
 sqlalchemy.db1.pool_recycle = 3600
-sqlalchemy.db1.convert_unicode = true
 
 ; the number of connections to keep open inside the connection pool.
 ; 0 indicates no limit
diff --git a/configs/production.ini b/configs/production.ini
--- a/configs/production.ini
+++ b/configs/production.ini
@@ -565,7 +565,6 @@ sqlalchemy.db1.echo = false
 
 ; recycle the connections after this amount of seconds
 sqlalchemy.db1.pool_recycle = 3600
-sqlalchemy.db1.convert_unicode = true
 
 ; the number of connections to keep open inside the connection pool.
 ; 0 indicates no limit