Error Establishing a Database Connection in WordPress: How to Fix It

"Error establishing a database connection" is one of the most alarming WordPress errors, because it replaces your entire site with a single line of text. Every page, including wp-admin, shows the same message.

The cause is simple to describe: WordPress could not talk to its database. The fix depends on why. This guide walks through the causes in the order they are most likely, so you can get the site back quickly.

What the error means#

WordPress stores your posts, pages, settings and users in a MySQL or MariaDB database. On every page load, it connects to that database using four details from wp-config.php:

• DB_NAME, the database name
• DB_USER, the database username
• DB_PASSWORD, the password
• DB_HOST, the database server (often localhost)

If any of these is wrong, or the database server is down, overloaded or damaged, WordPress cannot load anything and shows this error.

First, check if it is only you#

Open the site in a private window and on your phone's mobile data. If the site works there, the issue may be a cached error page. If it fails everywhere, the site is down for everyone. Our guide to checking is my website down explains how to confirm it.

1. Check your host's status page#

The most common cause, especially on shared hosting, is a database server that is down or overloaded. Before changing anything, check your host's status page or support channel. If they report a database incident, there is nothing to fix on your side: wait, and the site comes back on its own.

2. Check the database credentials in wp-config.php#

If the error started right after a migration, a password change or a host change, the credentials are the likely cause.

1. Open wp-config.php in the root folder of your site, through your host's file manager or SFTP.
2. Find the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD and DB_HOST lines.
3. In your hosting panel, open the databases section (in cPanel, MySQL Databases) and confirm that the database and user exist, that the user is assigned to that database with all privileges, and that the names match exactly, including any prefix such as account_.
4. If you are unsure of the password, reset the database user's password in the hosting panel and paste the new one into wp-config.php.

DB_HOST is usually localhost, but some hosts use a separate server name or an IP and port. Your host's documentation lists the right value.

3. Check if the database is corrupted#

If wp-admin shows a different message, such as "One or more database tables are unavailable", some tables may be damaged. WordPress has a built-in repair tool:

1. Add this line to wp-config.php, above the line that says "That's all, stop editing": define( 'WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true );
2. Visit yoursite.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php.
3. Click Repair Database.
4. Remove the line from wp-config.php as soon as you are done. The repair page does not require a login while it is enabled.

You can also repair tables from phpMyAdmin by selecting them and choosing Repair table.

4. Check if the database server is overloaded#

If the error comes and goes, often during traffic spikes, the database may be hitting its connection limit or running out of memory. Common triggers:

• A traffic spike or a bot crawling the site heavily.
• A plugin running slow or heavy database queries.
• Too many sites sharing the same database server.

Ask your host whether you are hitting max connections or resource limits. Adding page caching reduces database load, and blocking aggressive bots helps. If it keeps happening, the plan may simply be too small.

5. Check for a hacked or changed wp-config.php#

If nobody changed anything and the credentials in wp-config.php look different from what you expect, the file may have been modified. Compare it with a backup. Our WordPress hacked guide covers the signs and how to clean a site.

6. Restore from a backup#

If the database is badly damaged or you cannot find the cause, restore the database from a recent backup. This is the reason off-site backups matter: a backup stored on the same server can be lost along with the database. See our WordPress backup guide.

How to prevent it#

• Keep regular, off-site backups of the database, so a corrupted database costs minutes instead of days.
• Use page caching, which serves most visits without touching the database.
• Keep plugins updated and remove ones you do not use, since a badly written plugin can overload the database.
• Record your credentials safely when you migrate or change hosts.
• Monitor the site, so you find out from an alert and not from a client.

Find out the moment it happens#

When the database goes down, every page fails at once, and it often happens at night or during a traffic spike. MyKavo checks your monitored pages on a schedule and sends an alert when they start returning errors, with what each page showed before and after. For WordPress sites, the free MyKavo plugin also records the plugin, theme, core and PHP changes made before the problem, which helps you tell a hosting outage from a change on your side.

Frequently asked questions#