diff --git a/sql/upgrades/047.sql b/sql/upgrades/047.sql
index 8d75bad8..62d789e3 100644
--- a/sql/upgrades/047.sql
+++ b/sql/upgrades/047.sql
@@ -1,89 +1,89 @@
 -- SWH DB schema upgrade
 -- from_version: 46
 -- to_version: 47
 -- description: Change type from text to bytea for release.name, occurrence.branch and occurrence_history.branch
 
 -- Update types
 ALTER TABLE release
 ALTER COLUMN name
 SET DATA TYPE bytea
-USING name::bytea;
+USING convert_to(name, 'UTF-8') :: bytea;
 
 ALTER TABLE occurrence
 ALTER COLUMN branch
 SET DATA TYPE bytea
-USING branch::bytea;
+USING convert_to(branch, 'UTF-8') :: bytea;
 
 ALTER TABLE occurrence_history
 ALTER COLUMN branch
 SET DATA TYPE bytea
-USING branch::bytea;
+USING convert_to(branch, 'UTF-8') :: bytea;
 
 ALTER TYPE release_entry
 ALTER ATTRIBUTE name
 SET DATA TYPE bytea
 CASCADE;
 
 create or replace function swh_occurrence_get_by(
        origin_id bigint,
        branch_name bytea default NULL,
        validity timestamptz default NULL)
     returns setof occurrence_history
     language plpgsql
 as $$
 declare
     filters text[] := array[] :: text[];  -- AND-clauses used to filter content
     q text;
 begin
     if origin_id is not null then
         filters := filters || format('origin = %L', origin_id);
     end if;
     if branch_name is not null then
         filters := filters || format('branch = %L', branch_name);
     end if;
     if validity is not null then
         filters := filters || format('validity @> %L::timestamptz', validity);
     end if;
 
     if cardinality(filters) = 0 then
         raise exception 'At least one filter amongst (origin_id, branch_name, validity) is needed';
     else
         q = format('select * ' ||
                    'from occurrence_history ' ||
                    'where %s ' ||
                    'order by validity desc',
 	        array_to_string(filters, ' and '));
         return query execute q;
     end if;
 end
 $$;
 
 
 create or replace function swh_revision_get_by(
        origin_id bigint,
        branch_name bytea default NULL,
        validity timestamptz default NULL)
     returns setof revision_entry
     language sql
     stable
 as $$
     select r.id, r.date, r.date_offset,
         r.committer_date, r.committer_date_offset,
         r.type, r.directory, r.message,
         a.name, a.email, c.name, c.email, r.metadata, r.synthetic,
         array(select rh.parent_id::bytea
             from revision_history rh
             where rh.id = r.id
             order by rh.parent_rank
         ) as parents
     from swh_occurrence_get_by(origin_id, branch_name, validity) as occ
     inner join revision r on occ.target = r.id
     left join person a on a.id = r.author
     left join person c on c.id = r.committer;
 $$;
 
 
 ALTER TYPE content_occurrence
 ALTER ATTRIBUTE branch
 SET DATA TYPE bytea
 CASCADE;