diff --git a/server/server.mjs b/server/server.mjs
index 6d1646a..2ee7c30 100644
--- a/server/server.mjs
+++ b/server/server.mjs
@@ -240,7 +240,13 @@ app.listen(port, () => {
   }
 })
 
+let tableReady = false
+
 async function ensureTable(poolInstance, currentTableName) {
+  if (tableReady) {
+    return
+  }
+
   await poolInstance.execute(`
     CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS \`${currentTableName}\` (
       time INT(11) NOT NULL,
@@ -249,6 +255,34 @@ async function ensureTable(poolInstance, currentTableName) {
       PRIMARY KEY (time)
     ) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci
   `)
+
+  await widenLegacyColumns(poolInstance, currentTableName)
+  tableReady = true
+}
+
+async function widenLegacyColumns(poolInstance, currentTableName) {
+  const [columns] = await poolInstance.execute(
+    `
+      SELECT COLUMN_NAME AS name, DATA_TYPE AS type
+      FROM information_schema.COLUMNS
+      WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = DATABASE()
+        AND TABLE_NAME = ?
+        AND COLUMN_NAME IN ('personnel', 'battlecombination')
+    `,
+    [currentTableName],
+  )
+
+  for (const column of columns) {
+    if (['text', 'mediumtext', 'longtext'].includes(String(column.type).toLowerCase())) {
+      continue
+    }
+
+    const nullability = column.name === 'personnel' ? 'NOT NULL' : 'DEFAULT NULL'
+    await poolInstance.execute(
+      `ALTER TABLE \`${currentTableName}\` MODIFY \`${column.name}\` TEXT ${nullability}`,
+    )
+    console.log(`widened column ${column.name} to TEXT on \`${currentTableName}\``)
+  }
 }
 
 function buildLineFlexMessage(time, rounds) {