Title: database backup – urgent help please Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # database backup – urgent help please * Resolved [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/) * I backed up my database using the exact steps here under simple back: [http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups#Simple_Backup](http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups#Simple_Backup) But the website disappeared and instead I got this message: “Error establishing a database connection”. What did I do wrong? How do I get it back? Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135237) * Have you checked with your hosting provider to see if they currently have a mysql server problem? If you followed the instructions on the page mentioned, it’s highly unlikely that it was anything that you did. * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135241) * It doesn’t look like a server problem at that end. When I log on back to mysql, all the tables are still there. And Yes I did follow the instructions, clicked go and saved the downloaded file to my desktop — but now I’m thinking maybe I checked some boxes I wasn’t supposed to?? * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135243) * I get this message when trying to open the site with IE: * The website cannot display the page HTTP 500 Most likely causes: The website is under maintenance. The website has a programming error. * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135249) * Have you checked the backup file? Does it look like it contains data as well as the table structures? * If you think the database was damaged, you could try restoring it using the very backup you just created. * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup](http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup) * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135253) * Thanks esmi. The backup file on my desktop is in a notepad format with a .sql extension. Is that how it’s supposed to look? * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135261) * Yes but it’s more what’s within the file. A decent backup should contain some very long lines such as: * INSERT INTO`wp_posts`(`ID`,`post_author`,`post_date`,`post_date_gmt`,`post_content`,` post_title`,`post_excerpt`,`post_status`,`comment_status`,`ping_status`,`post_password`,` post_name`,`to_ping`,`pinged`,`post_modified`,`post_modified_gmt`,`post_content_filtered`,` post_parent`,`guid`,`menu_order`,`post_type`,`post_mime_type`,`comment_count`) VALUES (‘1’, ‘1’, ‘2009-07-02 10:01:44’, ‘2009-07-02 14:01:44’, ‘Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!’, ‘Hello world!’,”,‘ publish’, ‘open’, ‘open’, ”, ‘hello-world’, ”, ”, ‘2009-07-02 10:01:44’, ‘2009- 07-02 14:01:44’, ”, ‘0’, ‘[http://www.domain.com/?p=1’](http://www.domain.com/?p=1’);,‘ 0’, ‘post’, ”, ‘1’); * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135263) * Reviewing my steps, I think I have checked extra boxes under structure and Data that I wasn’t supposed to. Can I still restore the database using the backup done this way? Thanks. * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135264) * Yes, it looks so but I’m still wondering whether it contains more than it should… here are a few lines from the top. Do they look correct to you? thanks again. * @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=@@CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS */; /*!40101 SET @OLD_COLLATION_CONNECTION =@@COLLATION_CONNECTION */; /*!40101 SET NAMES utf8 */; * — — Database: `myblog` — * — ——————————————————– * — — Table structure for table `wp_comments` — * DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `wp_comments`; CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_comments`(` comment_ID` bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, `comment_post_ID` int( 11) NOT NULL default ‘0’, `comment_author` tinytext NOT NULL, `comment_author_email` varchar(100) NOT NULL default ”, `comment_author_url` varchar(200) NOT NULL default”,` comment_author_IP` varchar(100) NOT NULL default ”, `comment_date` datetime NOT NULL default ‘0000-00-00 00:00:00’, `comment_date_gmt` datetime NOT NULL default‘ 0000-00-00 00:00:00’, `comment_content` text NOT NULL, `comment_karma` int(11) NOT NULL default ‘0’, * [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/) * (@esmi) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135269) * I’ve seen that before on some backups. As far as I’m aware, it shouldn’t be a problem. * [frioman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/frioman/) * (@frioman) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135289) * I backed up once using the host backup method, and my blog dissappeared. After trying several things, I called tech support at the host. They said it was on their end and that it would take a couple hours to fix. They DID correct the problem and my blog was back up in a couple hours. * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135374) * thanks frioman. I spoke to tech support, they said the data base is still there but while trying to access it I changed the password (true!) so it’s not the same one the website uses to access the database. They said I need to go to wp hostings configuration.php file to correct it. Where do I find this file? I don’t see it when I go back to mysql, is it inside one of the tables? thanks a lot. * [xamataca](https://wordpress.org/support/users/xamataca/) * (@xamataca) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135378) * how typical is that 😀 look for the file in your wp folder: wp-config.php * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135380) * Thanks Xamataca. I assume that means I’m not the first one to commit that error! Best way to learn. Now I have to figure out where to find that folder…, there are several wp-…etc listed but none is called wp-config.php! or maybe I need to look somewhere else? I know this is basic but first time dealing with phpmyadmin is quite intimidating. will figure it out… * Thread Starter [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * (@rhusari) * [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135393) * Done. thanks Xamataca, esmi and frioman. What a learning curve! Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total) The topic ‘database backup – urgent help please’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [backup error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/backup-error/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 14 replies * 4 participants * Last reply from: [rhusari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhusari/) * Last activity: [16 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-backup-urgent-help-please/#post-1135393) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics