diff --git a/database/updates.inc b/database/updates.inc
index 90a9db22104f65e0235413329c19e9cbc9bd6643..82940d9ed981a380a7828e97613a9e5afb7313ed 100644
--- a/database/updates.inc
+++ b/database/updates.inc
@@ -1072,10 +1072,10 @@ function update_85() {
       cid int(10) NOT NULL,
       PRIMARY KEY (iid, cid)
      )");
-    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_category} ALTER COLUMN description DROP NOT NULL");
-    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_item} ALTER COLUMN description DROP NOT NULL");
-    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_feed} ALTER COLUMN description DROP NOT NULL");
-    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_feed} ALTER COLUMN image DROP NOT NULL");
+    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_category} MODIFY description longtext NULL");
+    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_item} MODIFY description longtext NULL");
+    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_feed} MODIFY description longtext NULL");
+    $ret[] = update_sql("ALTER TABLE {aggregator_feed} MODIFY image longtext NULL");
 
   }
   else {