“Error establishing a database connection” w/GoDaddy business hosting

  • Resolved NDWebs

    (@ndwebs)


    6 years, 3 months ago

    HELP! For two days, my site hasn’t been up since I went on GD to update my PHP and MySQL software; they’re way too old. This is the 2nd time this has happened; when I tried to log into the PHP/Apache, it wouldn’t let me. Then when I went back to my site, I got the message “Error establishing a database connection.” Not getting a lot of help from GD; I’ll only sit on hold for so long. It might be time for a change, but in the meantime, my site is down. I used FileZilla to upload my last backups [8.18] that s/b good. Unfortunately, the database file, which saved as a .GZ instead of a .ZIP, tells me I’m not authorized to open it; that’s weird. My GD server is Linux, but that shouldn’t affect me opening the file if I’m the Administrator.

    If you can see any daylight in this dilemma, I’d sincerely appreciate you sharing it. I’ve been doing websites since ’95, but the difference is if I saw what I’m seeing now, I’d just reboot the server; not possible! This is really making me rethink this thing…

    Thanks in advance for your assistance.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Sounds like your wp-config.php file had the database settings removed or changed and now the PHP code in the wordpress files can not find your websites database. It is also possible the database was deleted or the database server (usually just a process running within the same server) is not running correctly. Does your host provide access to cPanel or at least phpMyAdmin? If so, the first think I would do is look to see if there is a database in phpMyAdmin. If there is, then check to see what user is attached to it and reset the password for that database user then go into wp-config.php and enter the credentials on the lines that look like this: 

    /** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'username_here' );

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here' );

    Note that some hosts, namely godaddy, are known to use a secondary server for the databases so line that says define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' ); may or may not say localhost. You will need to check with your host to be sure on this part.

    Hope this helps.

    Thread Starter NDWebs

    (@ndwebs)

    Davood, I solved this problem by having GD upgrade my server, add cPanel, security and a couple of more bells and whistles. I will keep your response, however, for future reference, it was very informative.

    Thanks so much.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • The topic ‘“Error establishing a database connection” w/GoDaddy business hosting’ is closed to new replies.