FAQ

Server

• FAQ 1.1 I'm running PHP 4 and my server is crashing each time a specific action is required or phpMyAdmin sends a blank page or a page full of cryptic characters to my browser, what can I do?
• FAQ 1.2 My Apache server crashes when using phpMyAdmin.
• FAQ 1.3 I'm running phpMyAdmin with "cookie" authentication mode under PHP 4.2.0 or 4.2.1 loaded as an Apache 2 module but can't enter the script: I'm always displayed the login screen.
• FAQ 1.4 Using phpMyAdmin on IIS, I'm displayed the error message: "The specified CGI application misbehaved by not returning a complete set of HTTP headers ...".
• FAQ 1.5 Using phpMyAdmin on IIS, I'm facing crashes and/or many error messages with the HTTP or advanced authentication mode.
• FAQ 1.6 I can't use phpMyAdmin on PWS: nothing is displayed!
• FAQ 1.7 How can I zip, gzip or bzip2 a dump or a CSV export? It does not seem to work.
• FAQ 1.8 I cannot insert a text file in a table, and I get an error about safe mode being in effect.
• FAQ 1.9 I'm having troubles when uploading files. In general file uploads don't work on my system and uploaded files have a Content-Type: header in the first line.
• FAQ 1.10 I'm having troubles when uploading files with phpMyAdmin running on a secure server. My browser is Internet Explorer and I'm using the Apache server.
• FAQ 1.11 I get an 'open_basedir restriction' while uploading a file from the query box.
• FAQ 1.12 I have lost my MySQL root password, what can I do?
• FAQ 1.13 I get an error 'No SQL query' when trying to execute a bookmark.
• FAQ 1.14 I get an error 'No SQL query' when trying to submit a query from the convenient text area.
• FAQ 1.15 I have problems with mysql.user field names.
• FAQ 1.16 I cannot upload big dump files (memory, HTTP or timeout problems).
• FAQ 1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?
• FAQ 1.17a I cannot connect to the MySQL server. It always returns the error message, "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client"
• FAQ 1.18 I'm running MySQL <= 4.0.1 having lower_case_table_names set to 1. If I create a new table with a capital letter in its name it is changed to lowercase as it should. But if I try to DROP this table MySQL is unable to find the corresponding file.
• FAQ 1.19 I can't run the "display relations" feature because the script seems not to know the font face I'm using!
• FAQ 1.20 I receive the error "cannot load MySQL extension, please check PHP Configuration".
• FAQ 1.21 I am running the CGI version of PHP under Unix, and I cannot login using cookie auth.
• FAQ 1.22 I don't see the "Location of text file" field, so I cannot upload.
• FAQ 1.23 I'm running MySQL on a Win32 machine. Each time I create a new table the table and field names are changed to lowercase!
• FAQ 1.24 Some characters are being truncated in my queries, or I get characters randomly added. I am running PHP 4.2.3.
• FAQ 1.25 I am running Apache with mod_gzip-1.3.26.1a on Windows XP, and I get problems, such as undefined variables when I run a SQL query.
• FAQ 1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error "No input file specified" when trying to run phpMyAdmin.
• FAQ 1.27 I get empty page when I want to view huge page (eg. db_details_structure.php with plenty of tables).
• FAQ 1.28 My MySQL server sometimes refuses queries and returns the message 'Errorcode: 13'. What does this mean?
• FAQ 1.29 When I create a table or modify a field, I get an error and the fields are duplicated.
• FAQ 1.30 I get the error "left.php: Missing hash".
• FAQ 1.31 Does phpMyAdmin support PHP 5?
• FAQ 1.32 Can I use HTTP authentication with IIS?
• FAQ 1.33 Is there a problem with the mysqli extension when running PHP 5.0.4 on 64-bit systems?
• FAQ 1.34 Can I access directly to database or table pages?
• FAQ 1.35 Can I use HTTP authentication with Apache CGI?
• FAQ 1.36 I get an error "500 Internal Server Error".
• FAQ 1.37 I run phpMyAdmin on cluster of different machines and password encryption in cookie auth doesn't work.
• FAQ 1.38 Can I use phpMyAdmin on a server on which Suhosin is enabled?
• FAQ 1.39 When I try to connect via https, I can log in, but then my connection is redirected back to http. What can cause this behavior?
• FAQ 1.40 When accessing phpMyAdmin via an Apache reverse proxy, cookie login does not work.
• FAQ 1.41 When I view a database and ask to see its privileges, I get an error about an unknown column.
• FAQ 1.42 Using IIS the styles are not displayed correctly or I get an error like Warning: require_once(.libraries/common.lib.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Php\phpMyAdmin\css\phpmyadmin.css.php on line 7 or about Disallowed Parent Path.

Configuration

• FAQ 2.1 The error message "Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by ..." is displayed, what's the problem?
• FAQ 2.2 phpMyAdmin can't connect to MySQL. What's wrong?
• FAQ 2.3 The error message "Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (111) ..." is displayed. What can I do?
• FAQ 2.4 Nothing is displayed by my browser when I try to run phpMyAdmin, what can I do?
• FAQ 2.5 Each time I want to insert or change a record or drop a database or a table, an error 404 (page not found) is displayed or, with HTTP or cookie authentication, I'm asked to login again. What's wrong?
• FAQ 2.6 I get an "Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: YES)"-error when trying to access a MySQL-Server on a host which is port-forwarded for my localhost.
• FAQ 2.7 Using and creating themes
• FAQ 2.8 I get "Missing parameters" errors, what can I do?
• FAQ 2.9 Seeing an upload progress bar
• FAQ 2.10 I get "#1045 - Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)". What can I do?

Known limitations

• FAQ 3.1 When using HTTP authentication, an user who logged out can not relogin in with the same username.
• FAQ 3.2 When dumping a large table in compressed mode, I get a memory limit error or a time limit error.
• FAQ 3.3 With InnoDB tables, I lose foreign key relationships when I rename or alter a table.
• FAQ 3.4 I am unable to import dumps I created with the mysqldump tool bundled with the MySQL server distribution.
• FAQ 3.5 When using nested folders there are some multiple hierarchies displayed in a wrong manner?! ($cfg['LeftFrameTableSeparator'])
• FAQ 3.6 What is currently not supported in phpMyAdmin about InnoDB?
• FAQ 3.7 I have table with many (100+) fields and when I try to browse table I get series of errors like "Warning: unable to parse url". How can this be fixed?
• FAQ 3.8 I cannot use (clickable) HTML-forms in fields where I put a MIME-Transformation onto!
• FAQ 3.9 I get error messages when using "--sql_mode=ANSI" for the MySQL server
• FAQ 3.10 Homonyms and no primary key: When the results of a SELECT display more that one column with the same value (for example SELECT lastname from employees where firstname like 'A%' and two "Smith" values are displayed), if I click Edit I cannot be sure that I am editing the intended row.
• FAQ 3.11 The number of records for InnoDB tables is not correct.
• FAQ 3.12 What are the phpMyAdmin limitations for MySQL 3?
• FAQ 3.13 I get an error when entering USE followed by a db name containing an hyphen.
• FAQ 3.14 I am not able to browse a table when I don't have the right to SELECT one of the columns.
• FAQ 3.15 When I import an Excel spreadsheet, some cells with calculations do not display correctly.
• FAQ 3.16 When I compress (gzip, bzip2, zip) an Excel workbook and attempt to import it, nothing happens.
• FAQ 3.17 When I import an Excel spreadsheet, my custom cell types are not represented as they are in Excel.
• FAQ 3.18 When I import a CSV file that contains multiple tables, they are lumped together into a single table.
• FAQ 3.19 When I import a file and have phpMyAdmin determine the appropriate data structure it only uses int, decimal, and varchar types.

ISPs, multi-user installations

• FAQ 4.1 I'm an ISP. Can I setup one central copy of phpMyAdmin or do I need to install it for each customer.
• FAQ 4.2 What's the preferred way of making phpMyAdmin secure against evil access.
• FAQ 4.3 I get errors about not being able to include a file in /lang or in /libraries.
• FAQ 4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives "Access denied" when using HTTP authentication.
• FAQ 4.5 Is it possible to let users create their own databases?
• FAQ 4.6 How can I use the Host-based authentication additions?
• FAQ 4.7 Authentication window is displayed more than once, why?
• FAQ 4.8 Which parameters can I use in the URL that starts phpMyAdmin?

Browsers or client OS

• FAQ 5.1 I get an out of memory error, and my controls are non-functional, when trying to create a table with more than 14 fields.
• FAQ 5.2 With Xitami 2.5b4, phpMyAdmin won't process form fields.
• FAQ 5.3 I have problems dumping tables with Konqueror (phpMyAdmin 2.2.2).
• FAQ 5.4 I can't use the cookie authentication mode because Internet Explorer never stores the cookies.
• FAQ 5.5 In Internet Explorer 5.0, I get JavaScript errors when browsing my rows.
• FAQ 5.6 In Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 or 6.0, I get an error (like "Page not found") when trying to modify a row in a table with many fields, or with a text field
• FAQ 5.7 I refresh (reload) my browser, and come back to the welcome page.
• FAQ 5.8 With Mozilla 0.9.7 I have problems sending a query modified in the query box.
• FAQ 5.9 With Mozilla 0.9.? to 1.0 and Netscape 7.0-PR1 I can't type a whitespace in the SQL-Query edit area: the page scrolls down.
• FAQ 5.10 With Netscape 4.75 I get empty rows between each row of data in a CSV exported file.
• FAQ 5.11 Extended-ASCII characters like German umlauts are displayed wrong.
• FAQ 5.12 Mac OS X: Safari browser changes special characters to "?".
• FAQ 5.13 With Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6, and HTTP authentication type, I cannot manage two servers: I login to the first one, then the other one, but if I switch back to the first, I have to login on each operation.
• FAQ 5.14 Using Opera 6, I can manage to get to the authentication, but nothing happens after that, only a blank screen.
• FAQ 5.15 I have display problems with Safari.
• FAQ 5.16 With Internet Explorer, I get "Access is denied" Javascript errors. Or I cannot make phpMyAdmin work under Windows.
• FAQ 5.17 With Firefox, I cannot delete rows of data or drop a database.
• FAQ 5.18 With Konqueror 4.2.x an invalid LIMIT clause is generated when I browse a table.
• FAQ 5.19 Why doesn't MSIE 6.0 show tabs and colors?

Using phpMyAdmin

• FAQ 6.1 I can't insert new rows into a table / I can't create a table - MySQL brings up a SQL-error.
• FAQ 6.2 When I create a table, I click the Index checkbox for 2 fields and phpMyAdmin generates only one index with those 2 fields.
• FAQ 6.3 How can I insert a null value into my table?
• FAQ 6.4 How can I back up my database or table?
• FAQ 6.5 How can I restore (upload) my database or table using a dump? How can I run a ".sql" file?
• FAQ 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example?
• FAQ 6.7 How can I use the "display field" feature?
• FAQ 6.8 How can I produce a PDF schema of my database?
• FAQ 6.9 phpMyAdmin is changing the type of one of my columns!
• FAQ 6.10 When creating a privilege, what happens with underscores in the database name?
• FAQ 6.11 What is the curious symbol ø in the statistics pages?
• FAQ 6.12 I want to understand some Export options.
• FAQ 6.13 I would like to create a database with a dot in its name.
• FAQ 6.14 How do I set up the SQL Validator?
• FAQ 6.15 I want to add a BLOB field and put an index on it, but MySQL says "BLOB column '...' used in key specification without a key length".
• FAQ 6.16 How can I simply move in page with plenty editing fields?
• FAQ 6.17 Transformations: I can't enter my own mimetype! WTF is this feature then useful for?
• FAQ 6.18 Bookmarks: Where can I store bookmarks? Why can't I see any bookmarks below the query box? What is this variable for?
• FAQ 6.19 How can I create simple LATEX document to include exported table?
• FAQ 6.20 In MySQL 4, I see a lot of databases which are not mine, and cannot access them.
• FAQ 6.21 In edit/insert mode, how can I see a list of possible values for a field, based on some foreign table?
• FAQ 6.22 Bookmarks: Can I execute a default bookmark automatically when entering Browse mode for a table?
• FAQ 6.23 Export: I heard phpMyAdmin can export Microsoft Excel files, how can I enable that?
• FAQ 6.24 Now that phpMyAdmin supports native MySQL 4.1.x column comments, what happens to my column comments stored in pmadb?
• FAQ 6.25 How does BLOB streaming work in phpMyAdmin?
• FAQ 6.26 How can I select a range of rows?
• FAQ 6.27 What format strings can I use?
• FAQ 6.28 How can I easily edit relational schema for export?
• FAQ 6.29 Why can't I get a chart from my query result table?
• FAQ 6.30 How can I import ESRI Shapefiles?

phpMyAdmin project

• FAQ 7.1 I have found a bug. How do I inform developers?
• FAQ 7.2 I want to translate the messages to a new language or upgrade an existing language, where do I start?
• FAQ 7.3 I would like to help out with the development of phpMyAdmin. How should I proceed?

Security

• FAQ 8.1 Where can I get information about the security alerts issued for phpMyAdmin?
• FAQ 8.2 How can I protect phpMyAdmin against brute force attacks?

Synchronization

• FAQ 9.1 How can I synchronize two databases/tables in phpMyAdmin?