Message: Out of sort memory, consider increasing server sort buffer size Code: 1038

i keep gettign the error message when trying to do admin tasks on my forum and in phpmyadmin. recently moved from 12.04lts to 20.04. can anyone advice on good safe setting for 4gb ram server. thanks

#
# The MySQL database server configuration file.
#
# One can use all long options that the program supports.
# Run program with --help to get a list of available options and with
# --print-defaults to see which it would actually understand and use.
#
# For explanations see
# http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/server-system-variables.html

# Here is entries for some specific programs
# The following values assume you have at least 32M ram

[mysqld]
#
# * Basic Settings
#
user        = mysql
# pid-file  = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
# socket    = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
# port      = 3306
# datadir   = /var/lib/mysql


# If MySQL is running as a replication slave, this should be
# changed. Ref https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/server-system-variables.html#sysvar_tmpdir
# tmpdir        = /tmp
#
# Instead of skip-networking the default is now to listen only on
# localhost which is more compatible and is not less secure.
bind-address        = 127.0.0.1
mysqlx-bind-address = 127.0.0.1
#
# * Fine Tuning
#
key_buffer_size     = 16M
# max_allowed_packet    = 64M
# thread_stack      = 256K

# thread_cache_size       = -1

# This replaces the startup script and checks MyISAM tables if needed
# the first time they are touched
myisam-recover-options  = BACKUP

# max_connections        = 151

# table_open_cache       = 4000

#
# * Logging and Replication
#
# Both location gets rotated by the cronjob.
#
# Log all queries
# Be aware that this log type is a performance killer.
# general_log_file        = /var/log/mysql/query.log
# general_log             = 1
#
# Error log - should be very few entries.
#
log_error = /var/log/mysql/error.log
#
# Here you can see queries with especially long duration
# slow_query_log        = 1
# slow_query_log_file   = /var/log/mysql/mysql-slow.log
# long_query_time = 2
# log-queries-not-using-indexes
#
# The following can be used as easy to replay backup logs or for replication.
# note: if you are setting up a replication slave, see README.Debian about
#       other settings you may need to change.
# server-id     = 1
# log_bin           = /var/log/mysql/mysql-bin.log
# binlog_expire_logs_seconds    = 2592000
max_binlog_size   = 100M
# binlog_do_db      = include_database_name
# binlog_ignore_db  = include_database_name