Are you seeing the ‘Error establishing a database connection’ notice on your WordPress website? It is a fatal error that makes your WordPress website inaccessible to the users.
This error occurs when WordPress is unable to make a connection to the database. A number of things can affect your WordPress database connection which makes it a bit difficult for beginners to troubleshoot.
In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the error establishing a database connection in WordPress
What Causes Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress?
The ‘Error establishing a database connection’ issue can be caused by incorrect database information in your WordPress settings, corrupt database, or an irresponsive database server.
A database is a software which makes it easy to store, organize, and retrieve data into other software. As a content management system, WordPress uses a database to store all your content and other website data. It then connects to the database each time someone visits your website. WordPress needs the following information for connecting to the database:
- Database name
- Database username
- Database password
- Database server
This information is stored in your WordPress configuration file called wp-config.php.
If any of these items are incorrect, WordPress would fail to connect to your database server, and you’ll see the ‘Error establishing a database connection’ error.
It is one of the most common WordPress errors. Apart from incorrect credentials, this error can also appear if the database server is down, or the database files are corrupt. Let’s take a look at how to fix error establishing database connection issue in WordPress with step by step troubleshooting.
If you’d prefer written instructions, just keep reading.
1. Check Your WordPress Database Credentials
The most common reason for database connection error in WordPress is incorrect database credentials. If you have recently moved your WordPress site to a new host, then this could be the most likely reason.
Your WordPress database credentials are stored in the wp-config.php file. It is the WordPress configuration file that contains important WordPress settings including database information.
If you have not edited wp-config.php file before, then take a look at our guide on how to edit wp-config.php file in WordPress.
You’ll be looking for the following lines in the wp-config.php file.
// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** ///** The name of the database for WordPress */define( 'DB_NAME', 'database_name_here' );/** MySQL database username */define( 'DB_USER', 'username_here' );/** MySQL database password */define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here' );/** MySQL hostname */define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
You need to make sure that the information for the database name, username, password, and database host is correct.
You can confirm this information from your WordPress hosting account dashboard. Simply log in to your hosting account and click on MySQL databases under the database section.