MySQL Connections

Ever get this message?

MediaWiki internal error.

Original exception: [af82dfb56593062d683427be] / Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBConnectionError: Cannot access the database: User Username already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections (127.0.0.1)

Apparently exceeding the 'max_user_connections' limit is not uncommon, since there are a lot of pages and comments about it on the Internet. But I have only encountered it recently (2025) and don't recall the problem occurring often, if at all, over the previous ten years of working with MediaWiki. So 1) what changed? and 2) what is the solution?

The current value for max_connections and max_user_connections can be found for each database by using cPanel --> Databases and select phpMyAdmin.

After a short delay the screen should display a list of databases in a left column. Select a database and the select SQL on the horizontal menu.

Enter a Command and select Go. The images below show commands used and results obtained.

max_connections

max_user_connections

This query was repeated on older MediaWiki databases and it seems that the limit of 10 has been the default for several previous versions.</p

Limits Imposed by the Hosting Provider

After some searching, I found that the Hosting Service provides three different user levels as shown below:-

This table shows that the max_connections permitted is limited to 500, less than the 1000 value in the current database.

And, depending on the level of service paid for, max_user_connections greater than the value of 20 in the current database is allowed, up to 75 for a business plan which is what I subscribe to.

Interim Solution

Based on my subscription level I could increase max_user_connections to 75. However, attempting to do this through phpMyAdmin encountered another problem - '#1227 - Access denied; you need (at least one of) the CREATE USER privilege(s) for this operation'.