vb.org Archive - MySQL UTF8 Troubleshooting

Hey guys, question for you all on finding a solution to this all. I've been attempting to get emojis to work on my forum and nothing works so far but here is the catch:

-If I duplicate my forum on my PC using WAMP, create a new DB with the right settings and restore my DB to it, emojis work perfect with my forum settings as I currently have them.

-I took the same DB on my dedicated and restored it to a new DB created with the same settings, and connect my forum to it, emojis do not work.

Other things of note: If you do preview post, the emoji is still shown. It changes to just ? when you submit it. Not sure if that helps pinpoint where the issue is. Any solutions? I would think that there is a server setting i'm missing because that is the only thing that makes sense as to why it works on WAMP but not on my dedicated.

Side note: My WAMP is on MySQL 5.7 whereas the dedicated is 5.6----chance this could be a cause and will there be any issues with upgrading to MySQL 5.7?

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (2)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
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./includes/class_hook.php
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Hooks Called:

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X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
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Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (2)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
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