diff --git a/CRM/Core/BAO/CustomField.php b/CRM/Core/BAO/CustomField.php
index 826a18c45d23351ef30d7279b3d5423e30ecb8cb..7c6350553b5757a5532eb0a35680a28698867746 100644
--- a/CRM/Core/BAO/CustomField.php
+++ b/CRM/Core/BAO/CustomField.php
@@ -1631,6 +1631,12 @@ SELECT $columnName
       ],
     ];
 
+    // If on MySQL 5.6 include ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC to fix unit tests
+    $databaseVersion = CRM_Utils_SQL::getDatabaseVersion();
+    if (version_compare($databaseVersion, '5.7', '<') && version_compare($databaseVersion, '5.6', '>=')) {
+      $table['attributes'] = $table['attributes'] . ' ROW_FORMAT=DYNAMIC';
+    }
+
     if (!$params['is_multiple']) {
       $table['indexes'] = [
         [