[SOLVED] Your php installation appears to be missing the mysql extension which is required by wordpress.

Hello everyone, when working on a client’s Woocommerce website I found the Error: Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress. This is a very rare error, and it usually only happens with very old PHP versions.

In the previous tutorial, we learned how to fix WooCommerce Gateway PayPal Checkout requires cURL to be installed on your server.

In this tutorial, I will guide you how to install the missing MYSQL Extension to fix this error.

Cause of the error

This error happens when the current PHP version is missing the MySQL extension package which is required when installing WordPress.

To check if php-mysql extension is installed on your site, create a check.php file with the following code:

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Next, upload this file to the root folder of your website and go to yourwebsite.com/check.php and see the outcome at mysqldnd section.

If it’s not installed, we will fix this error by installing the required package.

Before dealing with the error

Remember to upgrade WordPress to the latest version.

You can get latest version of WordPress on https://wordpress.org or directly upgrade from WordPress admin dashboard

Sometime upgrading wordpress will immediately fix this error. In case you are running on the latest wordpress version and the error is still not fixed, proceed to next step.

Fix the error on shared hosting running on Cpanel/Directadmin

On Cpanel go to SOFTWARE section and choose Select PHP version tool

Next, select all mysql extensions

With this new version of Cpanel, the extension will be installed automatically after each click

Now refresh your website to see if the error is fixed

If your website is running on PHP5, I strongly recommend upgrade to php7 for security improvement and faster website load speed. Also, if you are facing the error Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress, upgrade to PHP7 will immediately solve it because PHP7 has many built-in extensions.

In Cpanel admin section, you can easily swap PHP version with Select PHP version tool

You can do the same with Directadmin.

Fix the error on VPS/Dedicated server with ssh access

SSH to your server and use the following commands

Step 1: Check php version running on your server

php -v

Sample output

Step 2: Install the required mysql extension (use command according to PHP version)

If you website is running on PHP 7 => use the following command

Ubuntu + PHP 7

apt-get update
apt-get install php7.0-mysql
service apache2 restart

Centos + PHP 7

yum update
yum install php70w-mysql
service httpd restart

If you website is running on PHP 5 => use these command lines

Ubuntu + PHP 5

apt-get update
apt-get install php-mysql
service apache2 restart

Centos + PHP 5

yum update
yum install php-mysql
service httpd restart

Step 3: Enable php mysql extension in php.ini file

Edit php.ini file and add the following line

extension = mysql.so
extension=php_mysql.dll

To find path to Php.ini file use the following command

php -i | grep "Loaded Configuration File"

Sample output:

Normally, you can find php.ini in

• Centos: /etc/php.ini
• Ubuntu:  /etc/php/7.0/apache2

Finally, restart apache to apply changes.

Ubuntu

service apache 2 restart

Centos

Service httpd restart

Wrapping up

WordPress is the most stable opensource CMS at the moment. It’s not common to see error while using WordPress.

In this tutorial, I mentioned all the steps that you can follow to fix the error Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.