diff --git a/postgres-appliance/major_upgrade/pg_upgrade.py b/postgres-appliance/major_upgrade/pg_upgrade.py
index d9dafa4fc..3a0241bd7 100644
--- a/postgres-appliance/major_upgrade/pg_upgrade.py
+++ b/postgres-appliance/major_upgrade/pg_upgrade.py
@@ -204,9 +204,8 @@ def pg_upgrade(self, check=False):
     def prepare_new_pgdata(self, version):
         from spilo_commons import append_extensions
 
-        locale = self.query('SHOW lc_collate')[0][0]
         encoding = self.query('SHOW server_encoding')[0][0]
-        initdb_config = [{'locale': locale}, {'encoding': encoding}]
+        initdb_config = [{'encoding': encoding}]
         if self.query("SELECT current_setting('data_checksums')::bool")[0][0]:
             initdb_config.append('data-checksums')
 
diff --git a/postgres-appliance/tests/test_spilo.sh b/postgres-appliance/tests/test_spilo.sh
index 8e638528c..fccde0342 100755
--- a/postgres-appliance/tests/test_spilo.sh
+++ b/postgres-appliance/tests/test_spilo.sh
@@ -349,6 +349,7 @@ function test_spilo() {
 
     # drop_timescaledb "$container"
     log_info "[TS1] Testing in-place major upgrade 16->17"
+    drop_timescaledb "$container" # drop timescaledb as it is not yet supported in 17
     run_test test_successful_inplace_upgrade_to_17 "$container"
     wait_all_streaming "$container"
     run_test test_envdir_updated_to_x 17