diff --git a/administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/mysql/4.0.0-2018-08-01.sql b/administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/mysql/4.0.0-2018-08-01.sql
index 72a50731c9444..7a73a8e1f5f9b 100644
--- a/administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/mysql/4.0.0-2018-08-01.sql
+++ b/administrator/components/com_admin/sql/updates/mysql/4.0.0-2018-08-01.sql
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@ ALTER TABLE `#__ucm_content` MODIFY `core_modified_time` datetime NOT NULL;
 
 ALTER TABLE `#__ucm_content` MODIFY `core_publish_up` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL;
 ALTER TABLE `#__ucm_content` MODIFY `core_publish_down` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL;
+
+-- Only on MySQL: Update empty strings to null date before converting the column from varchar to datetime
+UPDATE `#__ucm_content` SET `core_checked_out_time` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' WHERE `core_checked_out_time` = '';
+
 ALTER TABLE `#__ucm_content` MODIFY `core_checked_out_time` datetime NULL DEFAULT NULL;
 
 ALTER TABLE `#__ucm_history` MODIFY `save_date` datetime NOT NULL;