Error establishing a database connection

  • Last week, I just got through updating a wordpress theme on a site that I have had for years. Plugins all were updated. THE VERY NEXT DAY 4.6 came out. And I updated it. I don’t know if it has anything to do with this or not. (I assume not, because this has been an ongoing issue for years.)

    EVERYDAY, consistently, I am having to contact my hosting provider about the same damn issue.

    “Error establishing a database connection

    This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at internal-db.servername.com. This could mean your host’s database server is down.

    Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
    Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
    Are you sure that the database server is running?

    If you’re unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.”

    While in the dashboard, I could be in the middle of saving a post, uploading an image, adding a product, doing a search on a product, writing, editing, BREATHING and suddenly I get the error message above. Or there would be this CONSTANT LAG time. Like it is saving. SAVING. SAVING!!! Saving another version into the browser.

    Then my front end, states, “Error establishing a database connection”.

    Then I spend a morning, afternoon or wee hours of the night with my hosting provider trying to figure out what is wrong??? EVERYDAY, I have been on the phone, chat with my hosting provider from 3 to 5 hours.

    They have moved all of my stuff to another server. I have been a long time customer so they are doing me a favor.

    YET, here we are AGAIN. Facing the same issue. And as well as countless others that I have seen on the forums trying to find the answer to this problem. I STILL DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE ANSWER IS.

    It would be nice if someone from WP could explain to me what do I need to do? To “establish a connection” so I can get back to work on my sites.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • Hello,

    The basic problem behind the Error Establishing database connection is not related to WordPress and is definitely problem with the host. May be try changing the host ?

    1) You can find some nice host who offer you trial

    2) You can migrate everything on WordPress exactly using duplicator plugin to that host and point your dns to that host and check. Suppose you have site example.com than make testnew.example.com in the new host and point DNS through your DNS management panel to point testnew.example.com to new host ??

    The problem with this is that you need to know what the actual error is, and in yoru case it’s not a standard programming thing. The connection works, as you know because the site was up and working. That almost always points to the hosting server being either underpowered or the connection between the web server and the database server being restricted by some method. If that’s right it’s only the hosting company that can “fix” the problem.

    Thread Starter isytes06

    (@isytes06)

    Interesting viewpoints Sakar and Catacaustic. I’ll see how this evening goes. I will definitely share your comments with the hosting admins. I’ll add to this if things change. Maybe this will help another user.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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