phpMyAdmin Error: cannot connect: invalid settings.

Getting these errors while accessing a database management tool is frustrating.

But this error can be easily fixed by editing the configuration file.

At Bobcares, we fix phpMyAdmin errors as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see how our Support Engineers fix this error.

When does phpMyAdmin show invalid settings?

Database management becomes handy with GUI tools. phpMyAdmin is one such tool for MySQL or MariaDB database servers.

But, accessing the phpMyAdmin often can end up in errors. One such error message is ‘cannot connect: invalid settings’. And the typical error message in the GUI appears as,

So why does it shows this error?

The reason is pretty simple, some missing configuration. But, finding the missing settings makes this tricky.

When a user enters the login details, phpMyAdmin verifies it with the existing details. If it doesn’t find the exact match, the session ends with an error message. So, let’s see what are those missing details.

Fix for the error: cannot connect invalid settings

Whenever customers approach us with this error, we check the configuration file. Our Experts in Server Administration fix this file to fix the error.

The configuration file of phpMyAdmin is config.inc.php.

Checking important config settings

The error message asks us to check the host, username, and password. So, our Support Engineers check these entries in the config file.

Sometimes, the error shows up while accessing the phpMyAdmin in the browser. This indicates an improper setup of the auth_type. For instance, consider the below cases.

For HTTP Authentication box.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'http';

To login on the phpMyAdmin homepage.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';

To verify with username and password from the config file.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';

In the auth_type, config, the config.inc.php must have the correct login details.

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '<password>';

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'root';

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = '<password>';

Mostly, this resolves the error.

Updating custom changes

Similarly, it may be necessary to update custom changes in the config file. Some customers change the port or use remote IPs. But do not update this in the config file.

In these situations, the configuration mismatch ends up in error. So, our Support Engineers always ensure to update custom changes to the config file.

Some users enable the no password option in the server. Then the phpMyAdmin does not ask for verification. But our experts do not recommend this. Because it gives database access to everyone. So we always recommend to keep the parameter value as,

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowNoPassword'] = false;

[Still having trouble in fixing phpMyAdmin errors? – We’ll help you.]

Conclusion

In short, phpMyAdmin cannot connect invalid settings indicates a bad configuration setup. Here the user request doesn’t match with the already configured details. Today, we saw how our Support Engineers fix this error.