diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index fa856e11..67c3cabd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+Version 0.1?.? (2022-??-??)
+===========================
+
+Bug fixes:
+- Perform MySQL table maintenance more reliably
+
 Version 0.10.2 (2022-04-04)
 ===========================
 
diff --git a/lib/Db/MySQL/Driver.php b/lib/Db/MySQL/Driver.php
index 9aca8189..c61762a1 100644
--- a/lib/Db/MySQL/Driver.php
+++ b/lib/Db/MySQL/Driver.php
@@ -224,7 +224,7 @@ class Driver extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\Db\AbstractDriver {
 
     public function maintenance(): bool {
         // with MySQL each table must be analyzed separately, so we first have to get a list of tables
-        foreach ($this->query("SHOW TABLES like 'arsse\\_%'") as $table) {
+        foreach ($this->query("SHOW TABLES like 'arsse%'") as $table) {
             $table = array_pop($table);
             if (!preg_match("/^arsse_[a-z_]+$/D", $table)) {
                 // table is not one of ours
diff --git a/lib/Misc/ValueInfo.php b/lib/Misc/ValueInfo.php
index 8b31590b..d03949cd 100644
--- a/lib/Misc/ValueInfo.php
+++ b/lib/Misc/ValueInfo.php
@@ -283,12 +283,8 @@ class ValueInfo {
                             }
                             return $out->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone("UTC"));
                         } else {
-                            $out = new \DateTimeImmutable($value, new \DateTimeZone("UTC"));
-                            if ($out) {
-                                return $out->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone("UTC"));
-                            } elseif ($strict && !$drop) {
-                                throw new \Exception;
-                            }
+                            // if the string fails to parse it will produce an exception which is caught just below
+                            return (new \DateTimeImmutable($value, new \DateTimeZone("UTC")))->setTimezone(new \DateTimeZone("UTC"));
                         }
                     } catch (\Exception $e) {
                         if ($strict && !$drop) {
diff --git a/tests/cases/Misc/TestValueInfo.php b/tests/cases/Misc/TestValueInfo.php
index e17be633..d6f39b23 100644
--- a/tests/cases/Misc/TestValueInfo.php
+++ b/tests/cases/Misc/TestValueInfo.php
@@ -568,7 +568,7 @@ class TestValueInfo extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\Test\AbstractTest {
             null,
         ];
         foreach ([
-            /* Input value                          microtime                    iso8601                      iso8601m                     http                         sql                          date                         time                         unix                         float                        '!M j, Y (D)'                *strtotime* (null)                  */
+            /* Input value                          microtime                    iso8601                      iso8601m                     http                         sql                          date                         time                         unix                         float                        '!M j, Y (D)'                *strtotime* (null) */
             [null,                                  null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
             [INF,                                   null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
             [NAN,                                   null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
@@ -600,7 +600,7 @@ class TestValueInfo extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\Test\AbstractTest {
             [[],                                    null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
             [$this->i("P1Y2D"),                     null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
             ["P1Y2D",                               null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null,                        null],
-        ] as $set) {
+        ] as $k => $set) {
             // shift the input value off the set
             $input = array_shift($set);
             // generate a set of tests for each target date formats
@@ -612,7 +612,7 @@ class TestValueInfo extends \JKingWeb\Arsse\Test\AbstractTest {
                     [false, true],
                     [true,  true],
                 ] as [$strict, $drop]) {
-                    yield [$input, $formats[$format], $exp, $strict, $drop];
+                    yield "Index #$k format \"$format\" strict:$strict drop:$drop" => [$input, $formats[$format], $exp, $strict, $drop];
                 }
             }
         }