In this short article we will go through the steps required to edit wp config file in wordpress. Let’s Start –
Pre-requsite
1- cPanel Access, this is your web hosting dashboard where your website files are hosted.
2- Website Backup.
3- Basic understanding of php or any other programming language is a plus. If not thats fine.
Video Tutorial
Common use cases for editing this file
1- Updating your database and user details
2- WordPress error establishing database connection
Example
Below, I have shared a screenshot sample of wp-config.php file, that will help you understand what is inside this file or what the contents of this file looks like ?
Editing wp-config
Lets, get to the business and start editting our file. At this point, I assume you have your file opened in the editor. Please follow instructions below –
Note: MySQL settings – You can get this info from your cPanel or web developer
1- Code below allows you to change your wordpress websites database to your new database name
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘myOldDatabaseName‘);
just update the last part, to with the new name-
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘myNewDatabaseName‘);
and thats it.
2- Similarly change MySQL database username
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘test_user’);
3- Update to the latest MySQL database password
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘myPassword123’);
4- MySQL hostname (this line and rest of the file stays unchanged)
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);
Hope this helped, please leave your thoughts in comments below.
