[SOLVED] Unable to Access MySQL DB after changing root password with phpmyadmin

I see the following:

Recommended MySql configuration (in my.ini ou my.cnf) :
innodb-default-row-format=dynamic
collation when creating the database :
For ProjeQtOr < V10.0 : utf8_general_ci
For ProjeQtOr >= V10.0 : utf8mb4_general_ci


Should I be using utf8mb4_general_ci instead of the latin1_general_ci ?

But i needed to change it to 'latin1_general_ci' to resolve the below errors and the Global Planning. Will I get these errors again if I change it to 'utf8mb4_general_ci' ?

***** ERROR ***** [V10.3.4] Exception-[42000] SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1253 COLLATION 'utf8mb4_general_ci' is not valid for CHARACTER SET 'latin1'


***** ERROR ***** [V10.3.4] Exception-[42000] SQLSTATE[42000]: Syntax error or access violation: 1253 COLLATION 'utf8_general_ci' is not valid for CHARACTER SET 'latin1'

Ok. But what is confusing to me is why it was looking to use a latin1 CHARACTER SET in the first place. Is this a default ? I did not make any changes to reflect this at the DB level.

What can I do/check to make sure I am setup properly?

Should I check/update something in mysql setup? What elements/values should I have in any projeqtor config files etc?

Thanks again for any assistance.