How to fix "Error es­tab­lish­ing a database con­nec­tion" in WordPress

The content man­age­ment system, WordPress, offers simple options for how you can get your website online. In just a few clicks you can build a blog, an online shop, or a com­pre­hens­ive company website. Most of the time everything goes well, but when a problem occurs, WordPress users are often left without any as­sist­ance. It’s es­pe­cially frus­trat­ing when the site is down all of a sudden. We explain what the WordPress database error, "Error es­tab­lish­ing a database con­nec­tion", means, when it occurs, and how to fix it.

WordPress websites are largely based on databases, which in turn use the MySQL database man­age­ment system. When internet users surf your WordPress site, PHP commands request the required database entries. However, if the user can only see the "Error es­tab­lish­ing a database con­nec­tion" message, this request for database in­form­a­tion hasn’t worked. Un­for­tu­nately, the error message doesn’t reveal why WordPress couldn’t connect to the database.

The error message doesn’t ne­ces­sar­ily have to have been triggered by something you’ve done. In most cases, it is due to the login data for the database not being correctly stored or the database itself being corrupted. This could be due to a plugin that makes changes without your in­ter­ven­tion or knowledge. Another reason for the error can be the database server itself. Therefore, the first step in cor­rect­ing the error is to locate the exact source of the error.

To access wp-config.php, you need to establish an FTP con­nec­tion with your server. The easiest way to do this is by using software such as FileZilla or another FTP program. If you have es­tab­lished a con­nec­tion to your server (access data is usually provided by your hosting provider), you should find the required file in your website’s root directory. Download it and open it with a text editor. The con­fig­ur­a­tion file contains settings for the database. To activate the repair tool, insert a line of code behind the MySQL settings:

Make sure that you use the correct syntax: it’s crucial for the correct quotation marks and spaces to be in the right place. Save the file and upload it back to your server. By doing this, you overwrite the original file.

But what if the backend also displays the error message "Error es­tab­lish­ing a database con­nec­tion"? This is probably due to the login data for the database being incorrect. You can check these in the same file (wp-config.php). Right at the beginning of the source code, you will find the cor­res­pond­ing lines that contain the database name, username, password, and hostname.

Check whether this data is correct. You can obtain the login in­form­a­tion from your hosting provider (you can often see the login data online in your computer profile of your provider). Make sure that the syntax is correct at this point as well. The hostname depends on your provider. WordPress offers a list of DB_HOST values in its codex. Once you have found the place where the error occurred, simply correct the cor­res­pond­ing values and upload the correct version to your server.

In­cid­ent­ally, the same solution also works if the problem occurs im­me­di­ately after a new in­stall­a­tion. You have probably entered the wrong user data in the in­stall­a­tion window. Instead of starting all over again, you can edit the wp-config.php directly.

If this doesn’t solve the problem either, it is possible that there’s nothing wrong with your database or the login data. Instead, the server that hosts your database has probably en­countered a problem and has triggered the WordPress’ "Error es­tab­lish­ing a database con­nec­tion" error. There can be two reasons for this: either the entire server is currently down or at least temporary over­loaded by too much traffic. In the latter case, the problem solves itself within a few minutes. If overloads like these occur fre­quently, you should consider finding a better solution with your hosting provider.

You must also contact your hosting provider if the server is com­pletely down. If you are not hosting the database yourself, you cannot fix this problem by yourself – in this case, your provider’s IT experts will have to take care of the problem. Before you get in touch with your provider, you can check for yourself whether the server may no longer be reachable. To do this, try to see if you can access phpMy­Ad­min (a web interface for managing the database) via your hosting provider’s user area. If the con­nec­tion cannot be es­tab­lished, the error is not your re­spons­ib­il­ity.