For example, maybe one of your posts went viral and now everyone and their dog tries to access your site? Hence the server is not able to handle part of those visits. Specifically, your database might be unresponsive due to a high spike in traffic. Even though this is a good problem to have, it’s still a problem. And that separate database server can simply be down for whatever reason. In some cases, the web server – the server that stores your website files – is run on a different machine than the database. This might be a result of a rogue plugin messing up the database internally, a hacker’s attack, a theme failing, and many more. This can include things like failed updates of the plugins, themes, and even the main WordPress software updates. The core WordPress files can get corrupted as a result of a failed update, among others. If those have changed for any reason then WordPress will no longer be able to fetch anything from the database. WordPress needs a specific login and password to access the database. With that being said, there can be a handful of reasons why the error occurs. When that happens, WordPress basically doesn’t know what to do next, so the only thing it can say is, “Error establishing a database connection.” The error occurs when, for whatever reason, WordPress cannot access the information in the database via PHP commands. Putting the two together, WordPress uses PHP commands to connect to the MySQL database, get the information it needs, and then display everything on the screen. Basically, the MySQL database is where every, even the smallest piece of information about your website, is kept. This includes your posts, pages, but also the smaller elements, such as the title of your site, the layout of your widgets, the color settings, etc.

WordPress uses a MySQL database to store all of your website’s content. WordPress – the core WordPress files – have been written in PHP. WordPress uses two main pieces of technology to provide you with all its awesome abilities: PHP and MySQL. Understanding The ProblemĪs much as we don’t want to play Captain Obvious here, the nature of the error is self-explanatory – it’s an error establishing a database connection. In fact, the error establishing a database connection is quite common. We know that you’re probably a bit scared right now, but let us assure you that this problem can be fixed and any permanent damage can be prevented. There’s no design, no familiar WordPress site elements, just text: …is the definition of a bad day if you’re a WordPress website owner.Īdmit it, this error message looks quite serious. “ Error establishing a database connection”

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