The “ Error establishing a database connection ” error in WordPress appears when the website cannot connect to your MySQL database to retrieve necessary data. This error can occur for many reasons, including incorrect database credentials, a corrupted MySQL database, or an inactive MySQL server.
Causes and solutions to fix WordPress database connection error
To be able to investigate the cause of the “Error establishing a database connection” error in WordPress and find a perfect solution, you need to understand and identify its cause . Take the time to research to determine the cause and find the right solution.
1. Check Hosting Server Storage
First, you will definitely need to make sure that the MySQL service is working properly and that no errors have occurred.
If your hosting runs out of space, MySQL may stop functioning due to insufficient storage space, inability to log, or system overload. You need to check if the system has used up all available space and resolve any issues accordingly.
2. Check MySQL status on hosting
- Log in to the hosting management page.
- Find the database management section.
- Check the status of MySQL by viewing the operating status of the databases.
- Check the error message or information to understand and fix the problem.
In the database management section, you see a list of databases you have created. Check the status of MySQL by seeing if the databases are up and running. If one or more databases show an “active” or “running” status, the MySQL service is operating properly.
3. Check user and database permissions
You need to make sure that the user configured in wp-config.php
has full rights to operate the database. And in your hosting, update the permissions as follows:
You check the database permissions for users inside the mysql administration page.
You check whether the user is granted full access rights to the database or not through the “Add User To Database” section. Then, you select the “Full Privileges” option and make the changes.
4. Check the MySQL extensions used for PHP
Let’s check the status of Mysql and Mysqli extensions in the PHP environment. In case of using regular hosting with cPanel, the PHP Selector feature is available, allowing users to adjust PHP extensions. So, first of all, it is necessary to determine whether the Mysql extension has been activated or not.
5. Check the connection configuration to the database
Wordpress has a configuration file called “wp-config.php” which will contain the necessary information to connect to the database, such as server name, username, password and database name.
define( 'DB_NAME', 'dev_itsmeit' ); /** Database username */ define( 'DB_USER', 'dev_itsmeit' ); /** Database password */ define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '!YouPassword!!#' ); /** Database hostname */ define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
Look at the configuration above, then you need to make sure you have configured the information correctly to allow Wordpress to connect to the database.
In addition, in the wp-config.php file there is another configuration that is also very important. By default, Wordpress has a table_prefix of “wp_”. So you also need to make sure table_prefix matches the current table you are connecting to.
$table_prefix = 'wp_';
In the case of ItsmeIT’s “ Error establishing a database connection ” error, I realized that the table_prefix was set to “k2i7ua7nu_”, while in the WordPress wp-config.php configuration file it was “wp_” .
This doesn’t match up and causes problems. However, after I adjusted the table_prefix to match “k2i7ua7nu_”, the system worked as expected.
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