diff --git a/core/base/Dockerfile b/core/base/Dockerfile
index 5e3ad092..34b878ba 100644
--- a/core/base/Dockerfile
+++ b/core/base/Dockerfile
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ ENV \
 
 RUN set -euxo pipefail \
   ;  machine="$(uname -m)" \
-  ; deps="build-base gcc libffi-dev python3-dev" \
+  ; deps="build-base gcc libffi-dev python3-dev mariadb-dev" \
   ; [[ "${machine}" != x86_64 ]] && \
       deps="${deps} cargo git libretls-dev mariadb-connector-c-dev postgresql-dev" \
   ; apk add --virtual .build-deps ${deps} \
diff --git a/core/base/requirements-dev.txt b/core/base/requirements-dev.txt
index 6ac3daac..936abfcb 100644
--- a/core/base/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/core/base/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ gunicorn
 idna
 itsdangerous
 limits
+mariadb
 marshmallow
 marshmallow-sqlalchemy
 mysql-connector-python
diff --git a/core/base/requirements-prod.txt b/core/base/requirements-prod.txt
index 6152a45a..40b97bc4 100644
--- a/core/base/requirements-prod.txt
+++ b/core/base/requirements-prod.txt
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ jsonschema==4.22.0
 jsonschema-specifications==2023.12.1
 limits==3.11.0
 Mako==1.3.3
+mariadb==1.1.11
 MarkupSafe==2.1.5
 marshmallow==3.21.2
 marshmallow-sqlalchemy==1.0.0
diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst
index 1111481d..5b4c153f 100644
--- a/docs/faq.rst
+++ b/docs/faq.rst
@@ -986,3 +986,13 @@ Below are the steps for writing the postfix (mail) logs to a log file on the fil
   if [ -d /run/systemd/system ]; then
       systemctl kill -s HUP rsyslog.service
   fi
+
+
+Admin container fails to connect to external MariaDB database
+`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
+
+If the admin container is `unable to connect to an external MariaDB database due to incompatible collation`_, you may need to change the ``SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI`` setting to ensure the right connector is used.
+
+MariaDB has no support for utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci which is the new default since MySQL version 8.0.
+
+.. _`unable to connect to an external MariaDB database due to incompatible collation`: https://github.com/Mailu/Mailu/issues/3449
diff --git a/towncrier/newsfragments/3449.bugfix b/towncrier/newsfragments/3449.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ca641393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/towncrier/newsfragments/3449.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add the mariadb connector, as per #3449