Title: Can’t Select database, strange error
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Can’t Select database, strange error

 *  [eb1ch](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eb1ch/)
 * (@eb1ch)
 * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-select-database-strange-error/)
 * Hi,
 * I had been using wordpress just fine and without incident for many months until
   I get an email from my hosting company saying they were changing my database’s
   IP number. After they did this change, my blog didn’t show up, and I got the 
   wp-config error message. This was not surprising. I went in and edited the the
   wp-config to reflect the change, and now I am getting a very strange error message.
   It reads-
 * ——————————-
    Can’t select database We were able to connect to the database server(
   which means your username and password is okay) but not able to select the ericblog
   database. • Are you sure it exists? • On some systems the name of your database
   is prefixed with your username, so it would be like username_wordpress. Could
   that be the problem? If you don’t know how to setup a database you should contact
   your host. If all else fails you may find help at the WordPress Support Forums.
 * ————————————-
 * You can see this for yourself at [http://www.ericbrown.org/blog](http://www.ericbrown.org/blog)
 * Any ideas what may be causing this???
 * Thanks so much.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-select-database-strange-error/#post-319862)
 * Did you contact your host to make sure the info in the config file is correct?
 *  [backpacker](https://wordpress.org/support/users/backpacker/)
 * (@backpacker)
 * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-select-database-strange-error/#post-319869)
 * Hi,moshu,WordPress’s database name must be “wordpress” or “username_wordpress”?
   
   Please:
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-select-database-strange-error/#post-319870)
 * The database name can be even “moshu” 🙂
    Whether it is prepended by your site
   admin username or not – it depends on your host’s setup. E.g. years ago I had
   databases (with the same host I am using now) where DBs had only names like “
   board” with a user “”backpacker” :). Later the host updated the servers and when
   I was moved to machine with cPanel I had to use my site username before it, e.
   g. if my site admin name (to get into the cPanel) was “canada” then my DB name
   became: `canada_board` and the user: `canada_backpacker`. Does it make sense?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Can’t Select database, strange error’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [database](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/database/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * Last activity: [20 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-select-database-strange-error/#post-319870)
 * Status: not resolved

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