"Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL…" (only a few installs)

  • I’ve been trying to resolve this problem but most of the people experiencing it are in an all-or-none situation. I have only a few installs with this problem on the same server with many working installations.

    I do local development with (the latest version of) XAMPP. I have about 30 WP installations. All work correctly except four. Those four display the “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.” message on startup.

    So, does that suggest that there isn’t anything wrong with my Apache installation but with those four installations?

    It’s possible that I caused a problem during a XAMPP upgrade but, again, it affected only these installs and none of the others.

    Anyone have any ideas where I could start troubleshooting or repair these installs?

    Thanks for all insights!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Thread Starter KeithAdv

    (@keithadv)

    So, this is just weird. I exported the database for one of the installs to a safe location then deleted both it and its user in phpmyadmin. Then I saved wp-content from that install to a safe location and deleted the rest of the install together.

    So, everything’s gone, right?

    Now if I recreate the folder in HTDOCS and point the browser to it, it will read and display that its an empty directory. But if I unzip a fresh WordPress into that directory and try to read it again, I’ll get the “Your PHP installation appears to be missing…, etc.“

    I don’t get it. wp-config.php doesn’t even exist at this point. Neither do the old database and user. What is it about this directory that is causing the error message?

    Thread Starter KeithAdv

    (@keithadv)

    I think I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. I’m using XAMPP with PHP v7.0. The site I’m trying to install was on WordPress 3.6 and that’s the version I’ve been unzipping. If I unzip WP 4.5.2, I don’t get the error message. So PHP 7.0 is incompatible with that earlier version of WP? Can someone verify?

    Dion

    (@diondesigns)

    The mysql extension was removed from PHP 7.0. It was old, and through the years it has had both performance and security issues. Anyone using PHP these days should instead be using the mysqli extension.

    I believe you can get WordPress 3.6 to work with mysqli if you add the following line to wp-config.php:

    define('WP_USE_EXT_MYSQL', false);

    One hopes WordPress will soon drop support for the mysql extension and start using some of the many great features added to the mysqli extension. (hint, hint)

    Thread Starter KeithAdv

    (@keithadv)

    Thank you!

    That was a mess! Turns out that the theme on that old site wasn’t ready for the new world, either. Before I saw your tip, I decided to install another XAMPP with an earlier PHP. From there, I could update everything and then migrate the site to my current XAMPP with no issues.

    Probably the long way around but I finally got the job done! Thanks again.

    Hi there,

    I am getting the same error message as you did above ‘Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress’ but I am not techy and unsure as to how to begin fixing it?

    Are you able to help me with a simple solution or a guide?

    Thanks in advance!

    Hi,
    I’m new to these forums.

    @keithadv I think you’ve successfully imported your NING website to WordPress;

    Would you be able to help me with this?
    Thanks,
    Mandy

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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