Overview

If you use a local development environment, you may encounter issues identical to those that occur on a live server. Because MySQL isn’t operating or shut down unexpectedly, your WordPress website may be unable to connect to its database in some instances.

The process of debugging your MySQL database may differ slightly depending on whatever local environment you choose. The process is very simple with XAMPP because you have access to a control panel rather than having to rely solely on the command line.

We’ll go over what XAMPP is and what the “MySQL shutdown suddenly” problem implies in this article. Then we’ll show you how to solve it using three different techniques. Let’s get started!

Contents Table of Contents

An Introduction to XAMPP

What Does “MySQL Shutdown Unexpectedly” Mean in XAMPP?

How to Fix the “MySQL Shutdown Unexpectedly” Error with XAMPP (3 Methods)

XAMPP: A Beginner’s Guide

XAMPP is a PHP programming environment that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. It’s a set of programs that lets you host websites locally by simulating the functions of a live server:

The XAMPP webpage is a good place to start.

Instead of setting up each element individually, you may use XAMPP to install all of the software you need to run WordPress locally in a single bundle. The software that development environments include varies.

With XAMPP, the components that you get include:

Apache: This is the world’s most used web server software, and it allows you to host websites.

MariaDB is an open-source database management system that allows you to manage databases.

PHP: Because WordPress is written in PHP, you’ll need to install PHP in order to use it (CMS).

Perl: Despite the fact that WordPress does not utilize Perl, it is included in the XAMPP stack by default.

XAMPP provides a simple control interface in addition to setting up the software required to run WordPress:

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The control panel for XAMPP.

This gives you access to each of XAMPP’s components’ logs. It also comes with an overview log that shows you what’s going on in the background of your environment.

However, just because you’re running a local development distribution doesn’t imply your server is immune to mistakes. The software components may malfunction in some situations, like in the case of the XAMPP error “MySQL shutdown suddenly.”

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What the XAMPP Error “MySQL Shutdown Unexpectedly” Is

This is the message you’ll get if the MySQL software in your environment shuts down or stops working unexpectedly, as the name of the problem implies:

“MySQL shutdown suddenly” is a XAMPP error.

We say “unexpectedly” since the MySQL database program can be shut down manually at any time. When you restart your server, the same thing happens.

When the software is turned off, however, your website will be unable to connect to its database. To put it another way, WordPress isn’t going to work.

As you can see in the screenshot above, XAMPP offers troubleshooting help for the “MySQL shutdown unexpectedly problem” right in its events log. In the following part, we’ll go over the various options for resolving this problem in further depth.

How to Fix the XAMPP Error “MySQL Shutdown Unexpectedly” (3 Methods)

Fixing the XAMPP error “MySQL shutdown suddenly” is usually simple. We’ll lead you through three remedies below, starting with the most basi

1. Use Administrator Privileges to Run XAMPP

When you don’t run XAMPP with administrator capabilities, it frequently produces errors. This is due to the fact that at lesser permission levels, its components may be unable to work or configure effectively.

If you’re not sure whether this is the case with your setup, we recommend closing XAMPP and restarting the environment as an administrator. To do so with Windows, look for the xampp-control file in the place where you installed XAMPP. After that, right-click the file and choose Run as administrator:

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Using administrative rights to start XAMPP.

If you’re using Mac OS X, right-click on the folder and choose Get Info. Navigate to the Sharing & Permissions area in the pop-up box that appears, click the padlock symbol, and enter your administrator password. Change the permissions for Read and Write to Everyone.

MySQL should work properly once XAMPP is installed and all of its components are operating. That means you’ll be able to access your database.

2. Restore the Backup of Your Database

If restarting XAMPP with administrator credentials does not fix the database problem, the next step is to restore the database’s backup. XAMPP produces backups of your environment’s software automatically, which you can retrieve from the location where it was installed.

Your XAMPP MySQL backup files should be located in Local Disk > XAMPP > MySQL by default. There are multiple directories inside that directory, two of which are labeled data and backup:

The MySQL directory in XAMPP.

All of the files used by your database are stored in the data folder. A single recent copy of your MySQL is stored in the backup folder.

Stop the MySQL software using your XAMPP control panel before restoring the backup data. To do so, go to the main menu and select the Stop button to the right of the MySQL option:

The XAMPP control panel is used.

Return to your XAMPP folder after stopping MySQL. Change the name of the data folder to anything different, such as data-old, to restore the MySQL backup. The backup folder should then be renamed data. That concludes our discussion.

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To be safe, we recommend keeping the data-old folder around until you’ve double-checked that everything is operating properly. Return to the XAMPP control panel at this point to restart MySQL, which should now be working properly.

3. Modify the MySQL Port

Another program using the port given to MySQL is one of the most prevalent reasons of the XAMPP error “MySQL shutdown suddenly.” It’s usually 3306 by default. To be sure, go to XAMPP’s control panel and pick the Netstat module, which is just above the Shell tool:

Using the Netstat tool from XAMPP.

Netstat is a command-line utility that displays all current connections on your network, as well as the ports they use. After you’ve set up Netstat, you’ll be able to see what port each tool in your stack, including MySQL, is utilizing.

Using Netstat to check for active connections.

If the shutdown was triggered by a conflict with that port, restoring a backup or running MySQL with administrator privileges won’t help. The only method to remedy this problem is to alter MySQL’s port. You can see what that port is and which others are in use using Netstat.

To do so, use the identical procedure we showed you in the previous section to stop the service. Next, on the XAMPP main menu, click the Config button next to MySQL, and then select the my.ini option:

Getting to the MySQL configuration file.

The MySQL setup parameters are stored in the my.ini file. XAMPP will open the file in your default text editor after you click it. Once you’ve gotten in, search for the Port line, which indicates the MySQL port number.

You can now alter the port number to something else that you know other programs don’t use. We recommend using 3307, which should be available in most circumstances. Close the my.ini file after saving your modifications.

The XAMPP control interface can then be used to restart MySQL. Hopefully, your database is now up and running. If XAMPP is unable to connect to your database using the new port you specified, it will notify you via the control panel’s report. In that scenario, you might want to try a different port.

Summary

You can get an error with your server’s setup if you use XAMPP to run WordPress locally. MySQL abruptly shutting down is one of the most typical problems.

The good news is that if this happens, you can troubleshoot the problem using one of three methods:

Use administrator rights to run XAMPP.

Restore the database backup you made.

Change the MySQL port number.

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