FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions — phpMyAdmin 4.3.11 documentation

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# FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Please have a look at our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin homepage for in-depth coverage of phpMyAdmin’s features and or interface.

## Server

### 1.1 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?

Try to set the `$cfg['OBGzip']` directive to `false` in your `config.inc.php` file and the `zlib.output_compression` directive to `Off` in your php configuration file.

### 1.2 My Apache server crashes when using phpMyAdmin.

You should first try the latest versions of Apache (and possibly MySQL). If your server keeps crashing, please ask for help in the various Apache support groups.

See also

1.1 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?

### 1.3 (withdrawn).

### 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 ...”.

You just forgot to read the install.txt file from the PHP distribution. Have a look at the last message in this PHP bug report #12061 from the official PHP bug database.

### 1.5 Using phpMyAdmin on IIS, I’m facing crashes and/or many error messages with the HTTP.

This is a known problem with the PHP ISAPI filter: it’s not so stable. Please use instead the cookie authentication mode.

### 1.6 I can’t use phpMyAdmin on PWS: nothing is displayed!

This seems to be a PWS bug. Filippo Simoncini found a workaround (at this time there is no better fix): remove or comment the `DOCTYPE` declarations (2 lines) from the scripts `libraries/Header.class.php` and `index.php`.

### 1.7 How can I GZip a dump or a CSV export? It does not seem to work.

This feature is based on the `gzencode()` PHP function to be more independent of the platform (Unix/Windows, Safe Mode or not, and so on). So, you must have Zlib support (`--with-zlib`).

### 1.8 I cannot insert a text file in a table, and I get an error about safe mode being in effect.

Your uploaded file is saved by PHP in the “upload dir”, as defined in `php.ini` by the variable `upload_tmp_dir` (usually the system default is /tmp). We recommend the following setup for Apache servers running in safe mode, to enable uploads of files while being reasonably secure:

- create a separate directory for uploads: mkdir /tmp/php
- give ownership to the Apache server’s user.group: chown apache.apache /tmp/php
- give proper permission: chmod 600 /tmp/php
- put `upload_tmp_dir = /tmp/php` in `php.ini`
- restart Apache

### 1.9 (withdrawn).

### 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.

As suggested by “Rob M” in the phpWizard forum, add this line to your httpd.conf:

    SetEnvIf User-Agent ".*MSIE.*" nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown

It seems to clear up many problems between Internet Explorer and SSL.

### 1.11 I get an ‘open_basedir restriction’ while uploading a file from the query box.

Since version 2.2.4, phpMyAdmin supports servers with open_basedir restrictions. However you need to create temporary directory and configure it as `$cfg['TempDir']`. The uploaded files will be moved there, and after execution of your SQL commands, removed.

### 1.12 I have lost my MySQL root password, what can I do?

The MySQL manual explains how to reset the permissions.

### 1.13 (withdrawn).

### 1.14 (withdrawn).

### 1.15 I have problems with mysql.user column names.

In previous MySQL versions, the `User` and `Password``columns were named ``user` and `password`. Please modify your column names to align with current standards.

### 1.16 I cannot upload big dump files (memory, HTTP or timeout problems).

Starting with version 2.7.0, the import engine has been re–written and these problems should not occur. If possible, upgrade your phpMyAdmin to the latest version to take advantage of the new import features.

The first things to check (or ask your host provider to check) are the values of `upload_max_filesize`, `memory_limit` and `post_max_size` in the `php.ini` configuration file. All of these three settings limit the maximum size of data that can be submitted and handled by PHP. One user also said that `post_max_size` and `memory_limit` need to be larger than `upload_max_filesize`. There exist several workarounds if your upload is too big or your hosting provider is unwilling to change the settings:

- Look at the `$cfg['UploadDir']` feature. This allows one to upload a file to the server via scp, ftp, or your favorite file transfer method. PhpMyAdmin is then able to import the files from the temporary directory. More information is available in the Configuration of this document.

- Using a utility (such as BigDump) to split the files before uploading. We cannot support this or any third party applications, but are aware of users having success with it.

- If you have shell (command line) access, use MySQL to import the files directly. You can do this by issuing the “source” command from within MySQL:

      source filename.sql;

### 1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?

Since phpMyAdmin 3.0.x, only MySQL 5.0.1 and newer are supported. For older MySQL versions, you need to use the latest 2.x branch. phpMyAdmin can connect to your MySQL server using PHP’s classic MySQL extension as well as the improved MySQL extension (MySQLi) that is available in PHP 5.0. The latter one should be used unless you have a good reason not to do so. When compiling PHP, we strongly recommend that you manually link the MySQL extension of your choice to a MySQL client library of at least the same minor version since the one that is bundled with some PHP distributions is rather old and might cause problems see 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”. MariaDB is also supported (versions 5.1 and 5.2 were tested).

Changed in version 3.5: Since phpMyAdmin 3.5 Drizzle is supported.

### 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”

You tried to access MySQL with an old MySQL client library. The version of your MySQL client library can be checked in your phpinfo() output. In general, it should have at least the same minor version as your server - as mentioned in 1.17 Which MySQL versions does phpMyAdmin support?. This problem is generally caused by using MySQL version 4.1 or newer. MySQL changed the authentication hash and your PHP is trying to use the old method. The proper solution is to use the mysqli extension with the proper client library to match your MySQL installation. More information (and several workarounds) are located in the MySQL Documentation.

### 1.18 (withdrawn).

### 1.19 I can’t run the “display relations” feature because the script seems not to know the font face I’m using!

The TCPDF library we’re using for this feature requires some special files to use font faces. Please refers to the TCPDF manual to build these files.

### 1.20 I receive an error about missing mysqli and mysql extensions.

To connect to a MySQL server, PHP needs a set of MySQL functions called “MySQL extension”. This extension may be part of the PHP distribution (compiled-in), otherwise it needs to be loaded dynamically. Its name is probably mysqli.so or php_mysqli.dll. phpMyAdmin tried to load the extension but failed. Usually, the problem is solved by installing a software package called “PHP-MySQL” or something similar.

There are currently two interfaces PHP provides as MySQL extensions - `mysql` and `mysqli`. The `mysqli` is tried first, because it’s the best one.

### 1.21 I am running the CGI version of PHP under Unix, and I cannot log in using cookie auth.

In `php.ini`, set `mysql.max_links` higher than 1.

### 1.22 I don’t see the “Location of text file” field, so I cannot upload.

This is most likely because in `php.ini`, your `file_uploads` parameter is not set to “on”.

### 1.23 I’m running MySQL on a Win32 machine. Each time I create a new table the table and column names are changed to lowercase!

This happens because the MySQL directive `lower_case_table_names` defaults to 1 (`ON`) in the Win32 version of MySQL. You can change this behavior by simply changing the directive to 0 (`OFF`): Just edit your `my.ini` file that should be located in your Windows directory and add the following line to the group [mysqld]:

    set-variable = lower_case_table_names=0

Next, save the file and restart the MySQL service. You can always check the value of this directive using the query

    SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'lower_case_table_names';

### 1.24 (withdrawn).

### 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.

A tip from Jose Fandos: put a comment on the following two lines in httpd.conf, like this:

    # mod_gzip_item_include file \.php$
    # mod_gzip_item_include mime "application/x-httpd-php.*"

as this version of mod_gzip on Apache (Windows) has problems handling PHP scripts. Of course you have to restart Apache.

### 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.

This is a permission problem. Right-click on the phpmyadmin folder and choose properties. Under the tab Security, click on “Add” and select the user “IUSR_machine” from the list. Now set his permissions and it should work.

### 1.27 I get empty page when I want to view huge page (eg. db_structure.php with plenty of tables).

This was caused by a PHP bug that occur when GZIP output buffering is enabled. If you turn off it (by `$cfg['OBGzip']` in `config.inc.php`), it should work. This bug will has been fixed in PHP 5.0.0.

### 1.28 My MySQL server sometimes refuses queries and returns the message ‘Errorcode: 13’. What does this mean?

This can happen due to a MySQL bug when having database / table names with upper case characters although `lower_case_table_names` is set to 1. To fix this, turn off this directive, convert all database and table names to lower case and turn it on again. Alternatively, there’s a bug-fix available starting with MySQL 3.23.56 / 4.0.11-gamma.

### 1.29 When I create a table or modify a column, I get an error and the columns are duplicated.

It is possible to configure Apache in such a way that PHP has problems interpreting .php files.

The problems occur when two different (and conflicting) set of directives are used:

    SetOutputFilter PHP
    SetInputFilter PHP

and

    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

In the case we saw, one set of directives was in `/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf`, while the other set was in `/etc/httpd/conf/addon-modules/php.conf`. The recommended way is with `AddType`, so just comment out the first set of lines and restart Apache:

    #SetOutputFilter PHP
    #SetInputFilter PHP

### 1.30 I get the error “navigation.php: Missing hash”.

This problem is known to happen when the server is running Turck MMCache but upgrading MMCache to version 2.3.21 solves the problem.

### 1.31 Does phpMyAdmin support PHP 5?

Yes.

Since release 4.1 phpMyAdmin supports only PHP 5.3 and newer. For PHP 5.2 you can use 4.0.x releases.

### 1.32 Can I use HTTP authentication with IIS?

Yes. This procedure was tested with phpMyAdmin 2.6.1, PHP 4.3.9 in ISAPI mode under IIS 5.1.

1. In your `php.ini` file, set `cgi.rfc2616_headers = 0`
2. In `Web Site Properties -> File/Directory Security -> Anonymous Access` dialog box, check the `Anonymous access` checkbox and uncheck any other checkboxes (i.e. uncheck `Basic authentication`, `Integrated Windows authentication`, and `Digest` if it’s enabled.) Click `OK`.
3. In `Custom Errors`, select the range of `401;1` through `401;5` and click the `Set to Default` button.

See also

RFC 2616

### 1.33 (withdrawn).

### 1.34 Can I access directly to database or table pages?

Yes. Out of the box, you can use URL like http://server/phpMyAdmin/index.php?server=X&db=database&table=table&target=script. For `server` you use the server number which refers to the order of the server paragraph in `config.inc.php`. Table and script parts are optional. If you want http://server/phpMyAdmin/database[/table][/script] URL, you need to do some configuration. Following lines apply only for Apache web server. First make sure, that you have enabled some features within global configuration. You need `Options FollowSymLinks` and `AllowOverride FileInfo` enabled for directory where phpMyAdmin is installed and you need mod_rewrite to be enabled. Then you just need to create following .htaccess file in root folder of phpMyAdmin installation (don’t forget to change directory name inside of it):

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /path_to_phpMyAdmin
    RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-z_]+\.php)$ index.php?db=$1&table=$2&target=$3 [R]
    RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-z_]+\.php)$ index.php?db=$1&target=$2 [R]
    RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)/([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)$ index.php?db=$1&table=$2 [R]
    RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9_]+)$ index.php?db=$1 [R]

### 1.35 Can I use HTTP authentication with Apache CGI?

Yes. However you need to pass authentication variable to CGI using following rewrite rule:

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

### 1.36 I get an error “500 Internal Server Error”.

There can be many explanations to this and a look at your server’s error log file might give a clue.

### 1.37 I run phpMyAdmin on cluster of different machines and password encryption in cookie auth doesn’t work.

If your cluster consist of different architectures, PHP code used for encryption/decryption won’t work correct. This is caused by use of pack/unpack functions in code. Only solution is to use mcrypt extension which works fine in this case.

### 1.38 Can I use phpMyAdmin on a server on which Suhosin is enabled?

Yes but the default configuration values of Suhosin are known to cause problems with some operations, for example editing a table with many columns and no primary key or with textual primary key.

Suhosin configuration might lead to malfunction in some cases and it can not be fully avoided as phpMyAdmin is kind of application which needs to transfer big amounts of columns in single HTTP request, what is something what Suhosin tries to prevent. Generally all `suhosin.request.*`, `suhosin.post.*` and `suhosin.get.*` directives can have negative effect on phpMyAdmin usability. You can always find in your error logs which limit did cause dropping of variable, so you can diagnose the problem and adjust matching configuration variable.

The default values for most Suhosin configuration options will work in most scenarios, however you might want to adjust at least following parameters:

- suhosin.request.max_vars should be increased (eg. 2048)
- suhosin.post.max_vars should be increased (eg. 2048)
- suhosin.request.max_array_index_length should be increased (eg. 256)
- suhosin.post.max_array_index_length should be increased (eg. 256)
- suhosin.request.max_totalname_length should be increased (eg. 8192)
- suhosin.post.max_totalname_length should be increased (eg. 8192)
- suhosin.get.max_value_length should be increased (eg. 1024)
- suhosin.sql.bailout_on_error needs to be disabled (the default)
- suhosin.log.* should not include SQL, otherwise you get big slowdown

You can also disable the warning using the `$cfg['SuhosinDisableWarning']`.

### 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?

Be sure that you have enabled `SSLOptions` and `StdEnvVars` in your Apache configuration.

See also

<http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_ssl.html#ssloptions>

### 1.40 When accessing phpMyAdmin via an Apache reverse proxy, cookie login does not work.

To be able to use cookie auth Apache must know that it has to rewrite the set-cookie headers. Example from the Apache 2.2 documentation:

    ProxyPass /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/
    ProxyPassReverse /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/
    ProxyPassReverseCookieDomain backend.example.com public.example.com
    ProxyPassReverseCookiePath / /mirror/foo/

Note: if the backend url looks like http://host/~user/phpmyadmin, the tilde (~) must be url encoded as %7E in the ProxyPassReverse* lines. This is not specific to phpmyadmin, it’s just the behavior of Apache.

    ProxyPass /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/~user/phpmyadmin
    ProxyPassReverse /mirror/foo/ http://backend.example.com/%7Euser/phpmyadmin
    ProxyPassReverseCookiePath /%7Euser/phpmyadmin /mirror/foo

See also

<http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_proxy.html>

### 1.41 When I view a database and ask to see its privileges, I get an error about an unknown column.

The MySQL server’s privilege tables are not up to date, you need to run the mysql_upgrade command on the server.

### 1.42 How can I prevent robots from accessing phpMyAdmin?

You can add various rules to .htaccess to filter access based on user agent field. This is quite easy to circumvent, but could prevent at least some robots accessing your installation.

    RewriteEngine on

    # Allow only GET and POST verbs
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !^(GET|POST)$ [NC,OR]

    # Ban Typical Vulnerability Scanners and others
    # Kick out Script Kiddies
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^(java|curl|wget).* [NC,OR]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(libwww-perl|curl|wget|python|nikto|wkito|pikto|scan|acunetix).* [NC,OR]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(winhttp|HTTrack|clshttp|archiver|loader|email|harvest|extract|grab|miner).* [NC,OR]

    # Ban Search Engines, Crawlers to your administrative panel
    # No reasons to access from bots
    # Ultimately Better than the useless robots.txt
    # Did google respect robots.txt?
    # Try google: intitle:phpMyAdmin intext:"Welcome to phpMyAdmin *.*.*" intext:"Log in" -wiki -forum -forums -questions intext:"Cookies must be enabled"
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(AdsBot-Google|ia_archiver|Scooter|Ask.Jeeves|Baiduspider|Exabot|FAST.Enterprise.Crawler|FAST-WebCrawler|www\.neomo\.de|Gigabot|Mediapartners-Google|Google.Desktop|Feedfetcher-Google|Googlebot|heise-IT-Markt-Crawler|heritrix|ibm.com\cs/crawler|ICCrawler|ichiro|MJ12bot|MetagerBot|msnbot-NewsBlogs|msnbot|msnbot-media|NG-Search|lucene.apache.org|NutchCVS|OmniExplorer_Bot|online.link.validator|psbot0|Seekbot|Sensis.Web.Crawler|SEO.search.Crawler|Seoma.\[SEO.Crawler\]|SEOsearch|Snappy|www.urltrends.com|www.tkl.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~crawler|SynooBot|crawleradmin.t-info@telekom.de|TurnitinBot|voyager|W3.SiteSearch.Crawler|W3C-checklink|W3C_Validator|www.WISEnutbot.com|yacybot|Yahoo-MMCrawler|Yahoo\!.DE.Slurp|Yahoo\!.Slurp|YahooSeeker).* [NC]
    RewriteRule .* - [F]

### 1.43 Why can’t I display the structure of my table containing hundreds of columns?

Because your PHP’s `memory_limit` is too low; adjust it in `php.ini`.

## Configuration

### 2.1 The error message “Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by ...” is displayed, what’s the problem?

Edit your `config.inc.php` file and ensure there is nothing (I.E. no blank lines, no spaces, no characters...) neither before the `<?php` tag at the beginning, neither after the `?>` tag at the end. We also got a report from a user under IIS, that used a zipped distribution kit: the file `libraries/Config.class.php` contained an end-of-line character (hex 0A) at the end; removing this character cleared his errors.

### 2.2 phpMyAdmin can’t connect to MySQL. What’s wrong?

Either there is an error with your PHP setup or your username/password is wrong. Try to make a small script which uses mysql_connect and see if it works. If it doesn’t, it may be you haven’t even compiled MySQL support into PHP.

### 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?

For RedHat users, Harald Legner suggests this on the mailing list:

On my RedHat-Box the socket of MySQL is /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock. In your `php.ini` you will find a line

    mysql.default_socket = /tmp/mysql.sock

change it to

    mysql.default_socket = /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Then restart apache and it will work.

Here is a fix suggested by Brad Ummer:

- First, you need to determine what socket is being used by MySQL. To do this, telnet to your server and go to the MySQL bin directory. In this directory there should be a file named mysqladmin. Type `./mysqladmin variables`, and this should give you a bunch of info about your MySQL server, including the socket (/tmp/mysql.sock, for example).
- Then, you need to tell PHP to use this socket. To do this in phpMyAdmin, you need to complete the socket information in the `config.inc.php`. For example: `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket']` Please also make sure that the permissions of this file allow to be readable by your webserver (i.e. ‘0755’).

Have also a look at the corresponding section of the MySQL documentation.

### 2.4 Nothing is displayed by my browser when I try to run phpMyAdmin, what can I do?

Try to set the `$cfg['OBGzip']` directive to `false` in the phpMyAdmin configuration file. It helps sometime. Also have a look at your PHP version number: if it contains “b” or “alpha” it means you’re running a testing version of PHP. That’s not a so good idea, please upgrade to a plain revision.

### 2.5 Each time I want to insert or change a row 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 log in again. What’s wrong?

Check the value you set for the `$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']` directive in the phpMyAdmin configuration file.

### 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.

When you are using a port on your localhost, which you redirect via port-forwarding to another host, MySQL is not resolving the localhost as expected. Erik Wasser explains: The solution is: if your host is “localhost” MySQL (the command line tool mysql as well) always tries to use the socket connection for speeding up things. And that doesn’t work in this configuration with port forwarding. If you enter “127.0.0.1” as hostname, everything is right and MySQL uses the TCP connection.

### 2.7 Using and creating themes

Themes are configured with `$cfg['ThemePath']`, `$cfg['ThemeManager']` and `$cfg['ThemeDefault']`. Under `$cfg['ThemePath']`, you should not delete the directory `pmahomme` or its underlying structure, because this is the system theme used by phpMyAdmin. `pmahomme` contains all images and styles, for backwards compatibility and for all themes that would not include images or css-files. If `$cfg['ThemeManager']` is enabled, you can select your favorite theme on the main page. Your selected theme will be stored in a cookie.

To create a theme:

- make a new subdirectory (for example “your_theme_name”) under `$cfg['ThemePath']` (by default `themes`)
- copy the files and directories from `pmahomme` to “your_theme_name”
- edit the css-files in “your_theme_name/css”
- put your new images in “your_theme_name/img”
- edit `layout.inc.php` in “your_theme_name”
- edit `info.inc.php` in “your_theme_name” to contain your chosen theme name, that will be visible in user interface
- make a new screenshot of your theme and save it under “your_theme_name/screen.png”

In theme directory there is file `info.inc.php` which contains theme verbose name, theme generation and theme version. These versions and generations are enumerated from 1 and do not have any direct dependence on phpMyAdmin version. Themes within same generation should be backwards compatible - theme with version 2 should work in phpMyAdmin requiring version 1. Themes with different generation are incompatible.

If you do not want to use your own symbols and buttons, remove the directory “img” in “your_theme_name”. phpMyAdmin will use the default icons and buttons (from the system-theme `pmahomme`).

### 2.8 I get “Missing parameters” errors, what can I do?

Here are a few points to check:

- In `config.inc.php`, try to leave the `$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']` directive empty. See also 4.7 Authentication window is displayed more than once, why?.
- Maybe you have a broken PHP installation or you need to upgrade your Zend Optimizer. See <http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31134>.
- If you are using Hardened PHP with the ini directive `varfilter.max_request_variables` set to the default (200) or another low value, you could get this error if your table has a high number of columns. Adjust this setting accordingly. (Thanks to Klaus Dorninger for the hint).
- In the `php.ini` directive `arg_separator.input`, a value of ”;” will cause this error. Replace it with “&;”.
- If you are using Hardened-PHP, you might want to increase request limits.
- The directory specified in the `php.ini` directive `session.save_path` does not exist or is read-only.

### 2.9 Seeing an upload progress bar

To be able to see a progress bar during your uploads, your server must have the APC extension, the uploadprogress one, or you must be running PHP 5.4.0 or higher. Moreover, the JSON extension has to be enabled in your PHP.

If using APC, you must set `apc.rfc1867` to `on` in your `php.ini`.

If using PHP 5.4.0 or higher, you must set `session.upload_progress.enabled` to `1` in your `php.ini`. However, starting from phpMyAdmin version 4.0.4, session-based upload progress has been temporarily deactivated due to its problematic behavior.

See also

RFC 1867

## Known limitations

### 3.1 When using HTTP authentication, a user who logged out can not log in again in with the same nick.

This is related to the authentication mechanism (protocol) used by phpMyAdmin. To bypass this problem: just close all the opened browser windows and then go back to phpMyAdmin. You should be able to log in again.

### 3.2 When dumping a large table in compressed mode, I get a memory limit error or a time limit error.

Compressed dumps are built in memory and because of this are limited to php’s memory limit. For GZip/BZip2 exports this can be overcome since 2.5.4 using `$cfg['CompressOnFly']` (enabled by default). Zip exports can not be handled this way, so if you need Zip files for larger dump, you have to use another way.

### 3.3 With InnoDB tables, I lose foreign key relationships when I rename a table or a column.

This is an InnoDB bug, see <http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=21704>.

### 3.4 I am unable to import dumps I created with the mysqldump tool bundled with the MySQL server distribution.

The problem is that older versions of `mysqldump` created invalid comments like this:

    -- MySQL dump 8.22
    --
    -- Host: localhost Database: database
    ---------------------------------------------------------
    -- Server version 3.23.54

The invalid part of the code is the horizontal line made of dashes that appears once in every dump created with mysqldump. If you want to run your dump you have to turn it into valid MySQL. This means, you have to add a whitespace after the first two dashes of the line or add a # before it: `-- -------------------------------------------------------` or `#---------------------------------------------------------`

### 3.5 When using nested folders, multiple hierarchies are displayed in a wrong manner.

Please note that you should not use the separating string multiple times without any characters between them, or at the beginning/end of your table name. If you have to, think about using another TableSeparator or disabling that feature.

See also

`$cfg['NavigationTreeTableSeparator']`

### 3.6 (withdrawn).

### 3.7 I have table with many (100+) columns and when I try to browse table I get series of errors like “Warning: unable to parse url”. How can this be fixed?

Your table neither have a primary key nor an unique one, so we must use a long expression to identify this row. This causes problems to parse_url function. The workaround is to create a primary or unique key.

### 3.8 I cannot use (clickable) HTML-forms in columns where I put a MIME-Transformation onto!

Due to a surrounding form-container (for multi-row delete checkboxes), no nested forms can be put inside the table where phpMyAdmin displays the results. You can, however, use any form inside of a table if keep the parent form-container with the target to tbl_row_delete.php and just put your own input-elements inside. If you use a custom submit input field, the form will submit itself to the displaying page again, where you can validate the $HTTP_POST_VARS in a transformation. For a tutorial on how to effectively use transformations, see our Link section on the official phpMyAdmin-homepage.

### 3.9 I get error messages when using “–sql_mode=ANSI” for the MySQL server.

When MySQL is running in ANSI-compatibility mode, there are some major differences in how SQL is structured (see <http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/ansi-mode.html>). Most important of all, the quote-character (”) is interpreted as an identifier quote character and not as a string quote character, which makes many internal phpMyAdmin operations into invalid SQL statements. There is no workaround to this behaviour. News to this item will be posted in Bug report #1013.

### 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.

Please make sure that your table has a primary key, so that phpMyAdmin can use it for the Edit and Delete links.

### 3.11 The number of rows for InnoDB tables is not correct.

phpMyAdmin uses a quick method to get the row count, and this method only returns an approximate count in the case of InnoDB tables. See `$cfg['MaxExactCount']` for a way to modify those results, but this could have a serious impact on performance. However, one can easily replace the approximate row count with exact count by simply clicking on the approximate count. This can also be done for all tables at once by clicking on the rows sum displayed at the bottom.

### 3.12 (withdrawn).

### 3.13 I get an error when entering `USE` followed by a db name containing an hyphen.

The tests I have made with MySQL 5.1.49 shows that the API does not accept this syntax for the USE command.

### 3.14 I am not able to browse a table when I don’t have the right to SELECT one of the columns.

This has been a known limitation of phpMyAdmin since the beginning and it’s not likely to be solved in the future.

### 3.15 (withdrawn).

### 3.16 (withdrawn).

### 3.17 (withdrawn).

### 3.18 When I import a CSV file that contains multiple tables, they are lumped together into a single table.

There is no reliable way to differentiate tables in CSV format. For the time being, you will have to break apart CSV files containing multiple tables.

### 3.19 When I import a file and have phpMyAdmin determine the appropriate data structure it only uses int, decimal, and varchar types.

Currently, the import type-detection system can only assign these MySQL types to columns. In future, more will likely be added but for the time being you will have to edit the structure to your liking post-import. Also, you should note the fact that phpMyAdmin will use the size of the largest item in any given column as the column size for the appropriate type. If you know you will be adding larger items to that column then you should manually adjust the column sizes accordingly. This is done for the sake of efficiency.

### 3.20 After upgrading, some bookmarks are gone or their content cannot be shown.

At some point, the character set used to store bookmark content has changed. It’s better to recreate your bookmark from the newer phpMyAdmin version.

## ISPs, multi-user installations

### 4.1 I’m an ISP. Can I setup one central copy of phpMyAdmin or do I need to install it for each customer?

Since version 2.0.3, you can setup a central copy of phpMyAdmin for all your users. The development of this feature was kindly sponsored by NetCologne GmbH. This requires a properly setup MySQL user management and phpMyAdmin HTTP or cookie authentication.

See also

Using authentication modes

### 4.2 What’s the preferred way of making phpMyAdmin secure against evil access?

This depends on your system. If you’re running a server which cannot be accessed by other people, it’s sufficient to use the directory protection bundled with your webserver (with Apache you can use .htaccess files, for example). If other people have telnet access to your server, you should use phpMyAdmin’s HTTP or cookie authentication features.

Suggestions:

- Your `config.inc.php` file should be `chmod 660`.
- All your phpMyAdmin files should be chown -R phpmy.apache, where phpmy is a user whose password is only known to you, and apache is the group under which Apache runs.
- Follow security recommendations for PHP and your webserver.

### 4.3 I get errors about not being able to include a file in /lang or in /libraries.

Check `php.ini`, or ask your sysadmin to check it. The `include_path` must contain ”.” somewhere in it, and `open_basedir`, if used, must contain ”.” and ”./lang” to allow normal operation of phpMyAdmin.

### 4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives “Access denied” when using HTTP authentication.

This could happen for several reasons:

- `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser']` and/or `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass']` are wrong.
- The username/password you specify in the login dialog are invalid.
- You have already setup a security mechanism for the phpMyAdmin- directory, eg. a .htaccess file. This would interfere with phpMyAdmin’s authentication, so remove it.

### 4.5 Is it possible to let users create their own databases?

Starting with 2.2.5, in the user management page, you can enter a wildcard database name for a user (for example “joe%”), and put the privileges you want. For example, adding `SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, INDEX, ALTER` would let a user create/manage his/her database(s).

### 4.6 How can I use the Host-based authentication additions?

If you have existing rules from an old .htaccess file, you can take them and add a username between the `'deny'`/`'allow'` and `'from'` strings. Using the username wildcard of `'%'` would be a major benefit here if your installation is suited to using it. Then you can just add those updated lines into the `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules']` array.

If you want a pre-made sample, you can try this fragment. It stops the ‘root’ user from logging in from any networks other than the private network IP blocks.

    //block root from logging in except from the private networks
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order'] = 'deny,allow';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] = array(
        'deny root from all',
        'allow root from localhost',
        'allow root from 10.0.0.0/8',
        'allow root from 192.168.0.0/16',
        'allow root from 172.16.0.0/12',
    );

### 4.7 Authentication window is displayed more than once, why?

This happens if you are using a URL to start phpMyAdmin which is different than the one set in your `$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']`. For example, a missing “www”, or entering with an IP address while a domain name is defined in the config file.

### 4.8 Which parameters can I use in the URL that starts phpMyAdmin?

When starting phpMyAdmin, you can use the `db`, `pma_username`, `pma_password` and `server` parameters. This last one can contain either the numeric host index (from `$i` of the configuration file) or one of the host names present in the configuration file. Using `pma_username` and `pma_password` has been tested along with the usage of ‘cookie’ `auth_type`.

## Browsers or client OS

### 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 columns.

We could reproduce this problem only under Win98/98SE. Testing under WinNT4 or Win2K, we could easily create more than 60 columns. A workaround is to create a smaller number of columns, then come back to your table properties and add the other columns.

### 5.2 With Xitami 2.5b4, phpMyAdmin won’t process form fields.

This is not a phpMyAdmin problem but a Xitami known bug: you’ll face it with each script/website that use forms. Upgrade or downgrade your Xitami server.

### 5.3 I have problems dumping tables with Konqueror (phpMyAdmin 2.2.2).

With Konqueror 2.1.1: plain dumps, zip and GZip dumps work ok, except that the proposed file name for the dump is always ‘tbl_dump.php’. Bzip2 dumps don’t seem to work. With Konqueror 2.2.1: plain dumps work; zip dumps are placed into the user’s temporary directory, so they must be moved before closing Konqueror, or else they disappear. GZip dumps give an error message. Testing needs to be done for Konqueror 2.2.2.

### 5.4 I can’t use the cookie authentication mode because Internet Explorer never stores the cookies.

MS Internet Explorer seems to be really buggy about cookies, at least till version 6.

### 5.5 In Internet Explorer 5.0, I get JavaScript errors when browsing my rows.

Upgrade to at least Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2.

### 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 columns, or with a text column.

Your table neither have a primary key nor an unique one, so we must use a long URL to identify this row. There is a limit on the length of the URL in those browsers, and this not happen in Netscape, for example. The workaround is to create a primary or unique key, or use another browser.

### 5.7 I refresh (reload) my browser, and come back to the welcome page.

Some browsers support right-clicking into the frame you want to refresh, just do this in the right frame.

### 5.8 With Mozilla 0.9.7 I have problems sending a query modified in the query box.

Looks like a Mozilla bug: 0.9.6 was OK. We will keep an eye on future Mozilla versions.

### 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.

This is a Mozilla bug (see bug #26882 at BugZilla).

### 5.10 With Netscape 4.75 I get empty rows between each row of data in a CSV exported file.

This is a known Netscape 4.75 bug: it adds some line feeds when exporting data in octet-stream mode. Since we can’t detect the specific Netscape version, we cannot workaround this bug.

### 5.11 Extended-ASCII characters like German umlauts are displayed wrong.

Please ensure that you have set your browser’s character set to the one of the language file you have selected on phpMyAdmin’s start page. Alternatively, you can try the auto detection mode that is supported by the recent versions of the most browsers.

### 5.12 Mac OS X Safari browser changes special characters to ”?”.

This issue has been reported by a Mac OS X user, who adds that Chimera, Netscape and Mozilla do not have this problem.

### 5.13 With Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6, and HTTP authentication type, I cannot manage two servers: I log in to the first one, then the other one, but if I switch back to the first, I have to log in on each operation.

This is a bug in Internet Explorer, other browsers do not behave this way.

### 5.14 Using Opera6, I can manage to get to the authentication, but nothing happens after that, only a blank screen.

Please upgrade to Opera7 at least.

### 5.15 I have display problems with Safari.

Please upgrade to at least version 1.2.3.

### 5.16 With Internet Explorer, I get “Access is denied” Javascript errors. Or I cannot make phpMyAdmin work under Windows.

Please check the following points:

- Maybe you have defined your `$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri']` setting in `config.inc.php` to an IP address and you are starting phpMyAdmin with a URL containing a domain name, or the reverse situation.
- Security settings in IE and/or Microsoft Security Center are too high, thus blocking scripts execution.
- The Windows Firewall is blocking Apache and MySQL. You must allow HTTP ports (80 or 443) and MySQL port (usually 3306) in the “in” and “out” directions.

### 5.17 With Firefox, I cannot delete rows of data or drop a database.

Many users have confirmed that the Tabbrowser Extensions plugin they installed in their Firefox is causing the problem.

### 5.18 With Konqueror 4.2.x an invalid `LIMIT` clause is generated when I browse a table.

This happens only when both of these conditions are met: using the `http` authentication mode and `register_globals` being set to `On` on the server. It seems to be a browser-specific problem; meanwhile use the `cookie` authentication mode.

### 5.19 I get JavaScript errors in my browser.

Issues have been reported with some combinations of browser extensions. To troubleshoot, disable all extensions then clear your browser cache to see if the problem goes away.

## Using phpMyAdmin

### 6.1 I can’t insert new rows into a table / I can’t create a table - MySQL brings up a SQL error.

Examine the SQL error with care. Often the problem is caused by specifying a wrong column-type. Common errors include:

- Using `VARCHAR` without a size argument
- Using `TEXT` or `BLOB` with a size argument

Also, look at the syntax chapter in the MySQL manual to confirm that your syntax is correct.

### 6.2 When I create a table, I set an index for two columns and phpMyAdmin generates only one index with those two columns.

This is the way to create a multi-columns index. If you want two indexes, create the first one when creating the table, save, then display the table properties and click the Index link to create the other index.

### 6.3 How can I insert a null value into my table?

Since version 2.2.3, you have a checkbox for each column that can be null. Before 2.2.3, you had to enter “null”, without the quotes, as the column’s value. Since version 2.5.5, you have to use the checkbox to get a real NULL value, so if you enter “NULL” this means you want a literal NULL in the column, and not a NULL value (this works in PHP4).

### 6.4 How can I backup my database or table?

Click on a database or table name in the navigation panel, the properties will be displayed. Then on the menu, click “Export”, you can dump the structure, the data, or both. This will generate standard SQL statements that can be used to recreate your database/table. You will need to choose “Save as file”, so that phpMyAdmin can transmit the resulting dump to your station. Depending on your PHP configuration, you will see options to compress the dump. See also the `$cfg['ExecTimeLimit']` configuration variable. For additional help on this subject, look for the word “dump” in this document.

### 6.5 How can I restore (upload) my database or table using a dump? How can I run a ”.sql” file?

Click on a database name in the navigation panel, the properties will be displayed. Select “Import” from the list of tabs in the right–hand frame (or “SQL” if your phpMyAdmin version is previous to 2.7.0). In the “Location of the text file” section, type in the path to your dump filename, or use the Browse button. Then click Go. With version 2.7.0, the import engine has been re–written, if possible it is suggested that you upgrade to take advantage of the new features. For additional help on this subject, look for the word “upload” in this document.

### 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example?

Here is an example with the tables persons, towns and countries, all located in the database “mydb”. If you don’t have a `pma__relation` table, create it as explained in the configuration section. Then create the example tables:

    CREATE TABLE REL_countries (
    country_code char(1) NOT NULL default '',
    description varchar(10) NOT NULL default '',
    PRIMARY KEY (country_code)
    ) TYPE=MyISAM;

    INSERT INTO REL_countries VALUES ('C', 'Canada');

    CREATE TABLE REL_persons (
    id tinyint(4) NOT NULL auto_increment,
    person_name varchar(32) NOT NULL default '',
    town_code varchar(5) default '0',
    country_code char(1) NOT NULL default '',
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
    ) TYPE=MyISAM;

    INSERT INTO REL_persons VALUES (11, 'Marc', 'S', '');
    INSERT INTO REL_persons VALUES (15, 'Paul', 'S', 'C');

    CREATE TABLE REL_towns (
    town_code varchar(5) NOT NULL default '0',
    description varchar(30) NOT NULL default '',
    PRIMARY KEY (town_code)
    ) TYPE=MyISAM;

    INSERT INTO REL_towns VALUES ('S', 'Sherbrooke');
    INSERT INTO REL_towns VALUES ('M', 'Montréal');

To setup appropriate links and display information:

- on table “REL_persons” click Structure, then Relation view
- for “town_code”, choose from dropdowns, “mydb”, “REL_towns”, “code” for foreign database, table and column respectively
- for “country_code”, choose from dropdowns, “mydb”, “REL_countries”, “country_code” for foreign database, table and column respectively
- on table “REL_towns” click Structure, then Relation view
- in “Choose column to display”, choose “description”
- repeat the two previous steps for table “REL_countries”

Then test like this:

- Click on your db name in the navigation panel
- Choose “Query”
- Use tables: persons, towns, countries
- Click “Update query”
- In the columns row, choose persons.person_name and click the “Show” tickbox
- Do the same for towns.description and countries.descriptions in the other 2 columns
- Click “Update query” and you will see in the query box that the correct joins have been generated
- Click “Submit query”

### 6.7 How can I use the “display column” feature?

Starting from the previous example, create the `pma__table_info` as explained in the configuration section, then browse your persons table, and move the mouse over a town code or country code. See also 6.21 In edit/insert mode, how can I see a list of possible values for a column, based on some foreign table? for an additional feature that “display column” enables: drop-down list of possible values.

### 6.8 How can I produce a PDF schema of my database?

First the configuration variables “relation”, “table_coords” and “pdf_pages” have to be filled in. Then you need to think about your schema layout. Which tables will go on which pages?

- Select your database in the navigation panel.
- Choose “Operations” in the navigation bar at the top.
- Choose “Edit PDF Pages” near the bottom of the page.
- Enter a name for the first PDF page and click Go. If you like, you can use the “automatic layout,” which will put all your linked tables onto the new page.
- Select the name of the new page (making sure the Edit radio button is selected) and click Go.
- Select a table from the list, enter its coordinates and click Save. Coordinates are relative; your diagram will be automatically scaled to fit the page. When initially placing tables on the page, just pick any coordinates – say, 50x50. After clicking Save, you can then use the 6.28 How can I easily edit relational schema for export? to position the element correctly.
- When you’d like to look at your PDF, first be sure to click the Save button beneath the list of tables and coordinates, to save any changes you made there. Then scroll all the way down, select the PDF options you want, and click Go.
- Internet Explorer for Windows may suggest an incorrect filename when you try to save a generated PDF. When saving a generated PDF, be sure that the filename ends in ”.pdf”, for example “schema.pdf”. Browsers on other operating systems, and other browsers on Windows, do not have this problem.

### 6.9 phpMyAdmin is changing the type of one of my columns!

No, it’s MySQL that is doing silent column type changing.

### 6.10 When creating a privilege, what happens with underscores in the database name?

If you do not put a backslash before the underscore, this is a wildcard grant, and the underscore means “any character”. So, if the database name is “john_db”, the user would get rights to john1db, john2db ... If you put a backslash before the underscore, it means that the database name will have a real underscore.

### 6.11 What is the curious symbol ø in the statistics pages?

It means “average”.

### 6.12 I want to understand some Export options.

Structure:

- “Add DROP TABLE” will add a line telling MySQL to drop the table, if it already exists during the import. It does NOT drop the table after your export, it only affects the import file.
- “If Not Exists” will only create the table if it doesn’t exist. Otherwise, you may get an error if the table name exists but has a different structure.
- “Add AUTO_INCREMENT value” ensures that AUTO_INCREMENT value (if any) will be included in backup.
- “Enclose table and column names with backquotes” ensures that column and table names formed with special characters are protected.
- “Add into comments” includes column comments, relations, and MIME types set in the pmadb in the dump as SQL comments (/* xxx */).

Data:

- “Complete inserts” adds the column names on every INSERT command, for better documentation (but resulting file is bigger).
- “Extended inserts” provides a shorter dump file by using only once the INSERT verb and the table name.
- “Delayed inserts” are best explained in the MySQL manual - INSERT DELAYED Syntax.
- “Ignore inserts” treats errors as a warning instead. Again, more info is provided in the MySQL manual - INSERT Syntax, but basically with this selected, invalid values are adjusted and inserted rather than causing the entire statement to fail.

### 6.13 I would like to create a database with a dot in its name.

This is a bad idea, because in MySQL the syntax “database.table” is the normal way to reference a database and table name. Worse, MySQL will usually let you create a database with a dot, but then you cannot work with it, nor delete it.

### 6.14 (withdrawn).

### 6.15 I want to add a BLOB column and put an index on it, but MySQL says “BLOB column ‘...’ used in key specification without a key length”.

The right way to do this, is to create the column without any indexes, then display the table structure and use the “Create an index” dialog. On this page, you will be able to choose your BLOB column, and set a size to the index, which is the condition to create an index on a BLOB column.

### 6.16 How can I simply move in page with plenty editing fields?

You can use `Ctrl+arrows` (`Option+Arrows` in Safari) for moving on most pages with many editing fields (table structure changes, row editing, etc.).

### 6.17 Transformations: I can’t enter my own mimetype! WTF is this feature then useful for?

Slow down :). Defining mimetypes is of no use, if you can’t put transformations on them. Otherwise you could just put a comment on the column. Because entering your own mimetype will cause serious syntax checking issues and validation, this introduces a high-risk false- user-input situation. Instead you have to initialize mimetypes using functions or empty mimetype definitions.

Plus, you have a whole overview of available mimetypes. Who knows all those mimetypes by heart so he/she can enter it at will?

### 6.18 Bookmarks: Where can I store bookmarks? Why can’t I see any bookmarks below the query box? What is this variable for?

Any query you have executed can be stored as a bookmark on the page where the results are displayed. You will find a button labeled ‘Bookmark this query’ just at the end of the page. As soon as you have stored a bookmark, it is related to the database you run the query on. You can now access a bookmark dropdown on each page, the query box appears on for that database.

You can also have, inside the query, a placeholder for a variable. This is done by inserting into the query a SQL comment between `/*` and `*/`. Inside the comment, the special string `[VARIABLE]` is used. Be aware that the whole query minus the SQL comment must be valid by itself, otherwise you won’t be able to store it as a bookmark.

When you execute the bookmark, everything typed into the value input box on the query box page will replace the string `/*[VARIABLE]*/` in your stored query.

Also remember, that everything else inside the `/*[VARIABLE]*/` string for your query will remain the way it is, but will be stripped of the `/**/` chars. So you can use:

    /*, [VARIABLE] AS myname */

which will be expanded to

    , VARIABLE as myname

in your query, where VARIABLE is the string you entered in the input box. If an empty string is provided, no replacements are made.

A more complex example. Say you have stored this query:

    SELECT Name, Address FROM addresses WHERE 1 /* AND Name LIKE '%[VARIABLE]%' */

Say, you now enter “phpMyAdmin” as the variable for the stored query, the full query will be:

    SELECT Name, Address FROM addresses WHERE 1 AND Name LIKE '%phpMyAdmin%'

You can use multiple occurrences of `/*[VARIABLE]*/` in a single query (that is, multiple occurrences of the same variable).

NOTE THE ABSENCE OF SPACES inside the `/**/` construct. Any spaces inserted there will be later also inserted as spaces in your query and may lead to unexpected results especially when using the variable expansion inside of a “LIKE ‘’” expression.

Your initial query which is going to be stored as a bookmark has to yield at least one result row so you can store the bookmark. You may have that to work around using well positioned `/**/` comments.

### 6.19 How can I create simple LATEX document to include exported table?

You can simply include table in your LATEX documents, minimal sample document should look like following one (assuming you have table exported in file `table.tex`):

    \documentclass{article} % or any class you want
    \usepackage{longtable}  % for displaying table
    \begin{document}        % start of document
    \include{table}         % including exported table
    \end{document}          % end of document

### 6.20 I see a lot of databases which are not mine, and cannot access them.

You have one of these global privileges: CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES, SHOW DATABASES, LOCK TABLES. Those privileges also enable users to see all the database names. So if your users do not need those privileges, you can remove them and their databases list will shorten.

See also

<http://bugs.mysql.com/179>

### 6.21 In edit/insert mode, how can I see a list of possible values for a column, based on some foreign table?

You have to setup appropriate links between the tables, and also setup the “display column” in the foreign table. See 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example? for an example. Then, if there are 100 values or less in the foreign table, a drop-down list of values will be available. You will see two lists of values, the first list containing the key and the display column, the second list containing the display column and the key. The reason for this is to be able to type the first letter of either the key or the display column. For 100 values or more, a distinct window will appear, to browse foreign key values and choose one. To change the default limit of 100, see `$cfg['ForeignKeyMaxLimit']`.

### 6.22 Bookmarks: Can I execute a default bookmark automatically when entering Browse mode for a table?

Yes. If a bookmark has the same label as a table name and it’s not a public bookmark, it will be executed.

### 6.23 Export: I heard phpMyAdmin can export Microsoft Excel files?

You can use CSV for Microsoft Excel, which works out of the box.

Changed in version 3.4.5: Since phpMyAdmin 3.4.5 support for direct export to Microsoft Excel version 97 and newer was dropped.

### 6.24 Now that phpMyAdmin supports native MySQL 4.1.x column comments, what happens to my column comments stored in pmadb?

Automatic migration of a table’s pmadb-style column comments to the native ones is done whenever you enter Structure page for this table.

### 6.25 (withdrawn).

### 6.26 How can I select a range of rows?

Click the first row of the range, hold the shift key and click the last row of the range. This works everywhere you see rows, for example in Browse mode or on the Structure page.

### 6.27 What format strings can I use?

In all places where phpMyAdmin accepts format strings, you can use `@VARIABLE@` expansion and strftime format strings. The expanded variables depend on a context (for example, if you haven’t chosen a table, you can not get the table name), but the following variables can be used:

`@HTTP_HOST@`
  HTTP host that runs phpMyAdmin
`@SERVER@`
  MySQL server name
`@VERBOSE@`
  Verbose MySQL server name as defined in `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['verbose']`
`@VSERVER@`
  Verbose MySQL server name if set, otherwise normal
`@DATABASE@`
  Currently opened database
`@TABLE@`
  Currently opened table
`@COLUMNS@`
  Columns of the currently opened table
`@PHPMYADMIN@`
  phpMyAdmin with version

### 6.28 How can I easily edit relational schema for export?

By clicking on the button ‘toggle scratchboard’ on the page where you edit x/y coordinates of those elements you can activate a scratchboard where all your elements are placed. By clicking on an element, you can move them around in the pre-defined area and the x/y coordinates will get updated dynamically. Likewise, when entering a new position directly into the input field, the new position in the scratchboard changes after your cursor leaves the input field.

You have to click on the ‘OK’-button below the tables to save the new positions. If you want to place a new element, first add it to the table of elements and then you can drag the new element around.

By changing the paper size and the orientation you can change the size of the scratchboard as well. You can do so by just changing the dropdown field below, and the scratchboard will resize automatically, without interfering with the current placement of the elements.

If ever an element gets out of range you can either enlarge the paper size or click on the ‘reset’ button to place all elements below each other.

### 6.29 Why can’t I get a chart from my query result table?

Not every table can be put to the chart. Only tables with one, two or three columns can be visualised as a chart. Moreover the table must be in a special format for chart script to understand it. Currently supported formats can be found in the wiki.

### 6.30 Import: How can I import ESRI Shapefiles?

An ESRI Shapefile is actually a set of several files, where .shp file contains geometry data and .dbf file contains data related to those geometry data. To read data from .dbf file you need to have PHP compiled with the dBase extension (–enable-dbase). Otherwise only geometry data will be imported.

To upload these set of files you can use either of the following methods:

Configure upload directory with `$cfg['UploadDir']`, upload both .shp and .dbf files with the same filename and chose the .shp file from the import page.

Create a Zip archive with .shp and .dbf files and import it. For this to work, you need to set `$cfg['TempDir']` to a place where the web server user can write (for example `'./tmp'`).

To create the temporary directory on a UNIX-based system, you can do:

    cd phpMyAdmin
    mkdir tmp
    chmod o+rwx tmp

### 6.31 How do I create a relation in designer?

To select relation, click: The display column is shown in pink. To set/unset a column as the display column, click the “Choose column to display” icon, then click on the appropriate column name.

### 6.32 How can I use the zoom search feature?

The Zoom search feature is an alternative to table search feature. It allows you to explore a table by representing its data in a scatter plot. You can locate this feature by selecting a table and clicking the Search tab. One of the sub-tabs in the Table Search page is Zoom Search.

Consider the table REL_persons in 6.6 How can I use the relation table in Query-by-example? for an example. To use zoom search, two columns need to be selected, for example, id and town_code. The id values will be represented on one axis and town_code values on the other axis. Each row will be represented as a point in a scatter plot based on its id and town_code. You can include two additional search criteria apart from the two fields to display.

You can choose which field should be displayed as label for each point. If a display column has been set for the table (see 6.7 How can I use the “display column” feature?), it is taken as the label unless you specify otherwise. You can also select the maximum number of rows you want to be displayed in the plot by specifing it in the ‘Max rows to plot’ field. Once you have decided over your criteria, click ‘Go’ to display the plot.

After the plot is generated, you can use the mousewheel to zoom in and out of the plot. In addition, panning feature is enabled to navigate through the plot. You can zoom-in to a certail level of detail and use panning to locate your area of interest. Clicking on a point opens a dialogue box, displaying field values of the data row represented by the point. You can edit the values if required and click on submit to issue an update query. Basic instructions on how to use can be viewed by clicking the ‘How to use?’ link located just above the plot.

### 6.33 When browsing a table, how can I copy a column name?

Selecting the name of the column within the browse table header cell for copying is difficult, as the columns support reordering by dragging the header cells as well as sorting by clicking on the linked column name. To copy a column name, double-click on the empty area next to the column name, when the tooltip tells you to do so. This will show you an input box with the column name. You may right-click the column name within this input box to copy it to your clipboard.

### 6.34 How can I use the Favorite Tables feature?

Favorite Tables feature is very much similar to Recent Tables feature. It allows you to add a shortcut for the frequently used tables of any database in the navigation panel . You can easily navigate to any table in the list by simply choosing it from the list. These tables are stored in your browser’s local storage if you have not configured your phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage. Otherwise these entries are stored in phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage.

IMPORTANT: In absence of phpMyAdmin Configuration Storage, your Favorite tables may be different in different browsers based on your different selections in them.

To add a table to Favorite list simply click on the Gray star in front of a table name in the list of tables of a Database and wait until it turns to Yellow. To remove a table from list, simply click on the Yellow star and wait until it turns Gray again.

Using `$cfg['NumFavoriteTables']` in your `config.inc.php` file, you can define the maximum number of favorite tables shown in the navigation panel. Its default value is 10.

### 6.35 How can I use the Range search feature?

With the help of range search feature, one can specify a range of values for particular column(s) while performing search operation on a table from the Search tab.

To use this feature simply click on the BETWEEN or NOT BETWEEN operators from the operator select list in front of the column name. On choosing one of the above options, a dialog box will show up asking for the Minimum and Maximum value for that column. Only the specified range of values will be included in case of BETWEEN and excluded in case of NOT BETWEEN from the final results.

Note: The Range search feature will work only Numeric and Date data type columns.

### 6.36 What is Central columns and How can I use this feature?

As the name suggests, the Central columns feature enables to maintain a central list of columns per database to avoid similar name for the same data element and bring consistency of data type for the same data element. You can use the central list of columns to add an element to any table structure in that database which will save from writing similar column name and column definition.

To add a column to central list, go to table structure page, check the columns you want to include and then simply click on “Add to central columns”. If you want to add all unique columns from more than one table from a database then go to database structure page, check the tables you want to include and then select “Add columns to central list”.

To remove a column from central list, go to Table structure page, check the columns you want to remove and then simply click on “Remove from central columns”. If you want to remove all columns from more than one tables from a database then go to database structure page, check the tables you want to include and then select “Remove columns from central list”.

To view and manage the central list, select the database you want to manage central columns for then from the top menu click on “Central columns”. You will be taken to a page where you will have options to edit, delete or add new columns to central list.

### 6.37 How can I use Improve Table structure feature?

Improve table structure feature helps to bring the table structure upto Third Normal Form. A wizard is presented to user which asks questions about the elements during the various steps for normalization and a new structure is proposed accordingly to bring the table into the First/Second/Third Normal form. On startup of the wizard, user gets to select upto what normal form they want to normalize the table structure.

Here is an example table which you can use to test all of the three First, Second and Third Normal From.

    CREATE TABLE `VetOffice` (
     `petName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
     `petBreed` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
     `petType` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
     `petDOB` date NOT NULL,
     `ownerLastName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
     `ownerFirstName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
     `ownerPhone1` int(12) NOT NULL,
     `ownerPhone2` int(12) NOT NULL,
     `ownerEmail` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
    );

The above table is not in First normal Form as no primary key exists. Primary key is supposed to be (petName,`ownerLastName`,`ownerFirstName`) . If the primary key is chosen as suggested the resultant table won’t be in Second as well as Third Normal form as the following dependencies exists.

    (OwnerLastName, OwnerFirstName) -> OwnerEmail
    (OwnerLastName, OwnerFirstName) -> OwnerPhone
    PetBreed -> PetType

Which says, OwnerEmail depends on OwnerLastName and OwnerFirstName. OwnerPhone depends on OwnerLastName and OwnerFirstName. PetType depends on PetBreed.

## phpMyAdmin project

### 7.1 I have found a bug. How do I inform developers?

Our Bug Tracker is located at <http://sf.net/projects/phpmyadmin/> under the Bugs section. But please first discuss your bug with other users: <https://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmyadmin/forums>.

### 7.2 I want to translate the messages to a new language or upgrade an existing language, where do I start?

Translations are very welcome and all you need to have are the language skills. The easiest way is to use our online translation service. You can check out all the possibilities to translate in the translate section on our website.

### 7.3 I would like to help out with the development of phpMyAdmin. How should I proceed?

We welcome every contribution to the development of phpMyAdmin. You can check out all the possibilities to contribute in the contribute section on our website.

See also

Developers Information

## Security

### 8.1 Where can I get information about the security alerts issued for phpMyAdmin?

Please refer to <http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/security.php>.

### 8.2 How can I protect phpMyAdmin against brute force attacks?

If you use Apache web server, phpMyAdmin exports information about authentication to the Apache environment and it can be used in Apache logs. Currently there are two variables available:

`userID`
  User name of currently active user (he does not have to be logged in).
`userStatus`
  Status of currently active user, one of `ok` (user is logged in), `mysql-denied` (MySQL denied user login), `allow-denied` (user denied by allow/deny rules), `root-denied` (root is denied in configuration), `empty-denied` (empty password is denied).

`LogFormat` directive for Apache can look like following:

    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %{userID}n %{userStatus}n"   pma_combined

You can then use any log analyzing tools to detect possible break-in attempts.

## Synchronization

### 9.1 (withdrawn).

### 9.2 (withdrawn).

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