diff --git a/web/pgadmin/utils/driver/psycopg2/connection.py b/web/pgadmin/utils/driver/psycopg2/connection.py
index 230b2a999..276927624 100644
--- a/web/pgadmin/utils/driver/psycopg2/connection.py
+++ b/web/pgadmin/utils/driver/psycopg2/connection.py
@@ -403,9 +403,13 @@ class Connection(BaseConnection):
         postgres_encoding, self.python_encoding = \
             getEncoding(self.conn.encoding)
 
+        # Note that we use 'UPDATE pg_settings' for setting bytea_output as a
+        # convenience hack for those running on old, unsupported versions of
+        # PostgreSQL 'cos we're nice like that.
         status = _execute(cur, "SET DateStyle=ISO; "
                                "SET client_min_messages=notice;"
-                               "SET bytea_output=escape;"
+                               "UPDATE pg_settings SET setting = 'escape'"
+                               "    WHERE name = 'bytea_output';"
                                "SET client_encoding='{0}';"
                           .format(postgres_encoding))