Title: PHP Error at Installation Screen
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# PHP Error at Installation Screen

 *  Resolved [similaustudios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/similaustudios/)
 * (@similaustudios)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/)
 * I have searched everywhere for a solution to this problem and can’t seem to find
   one. I created my database and updated my wp-config.php file. At first, I was
   getting a “could not connect to databse” type error but I had misspelled the 
   host so after fixing that and updating the file, I received a PHP error message:
 * Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘.’ in /home/a1715830/public_html/wp-includes/
   user.php on line 1021
 * I have done nothing to the user.php file (I only accessed and changed the wp-
   config.php file as per the installation instructions). I opened the file to see
   if I could notice anything wrong but I simply cannot figure this out. [http://howiemoffat.com/wp-admin/install.php](http://howiemoffat.com/wp-admin/install.php)
 * If anyone might know how to fix this, I would greatly appreciate your help.
 * Thanks so much!

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284377)
 * Try re-uploading all files & folders from a **fresh** download of WordPress. 
   Make sure that you delete the old copies of files & folder before uploading the
   new ones.
 *  Thread Starter [similaustudios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/similaustudios/)
 * (@similaustudios)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284383)
 * This is a brand new website and a brand new installation so there were no older
   files or folders :-/ Or are you saying I should just do it over? If so, what 
   should I do differently next time?
 * Thanks so much for the quick reply! It is so much appreciated.
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284385)
 * You need to re-upload WordPress from a fresh download but delete the existing
   core files & folders before uploading the new ones. Do not just try to overwrite
   them.
 *  Thread Starter [similaustudios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/similaustudios/)
 * (@similaustudios)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284389)
 * I guess I don’t understand what that will accomplish since this was a fresh install
   to begin with (there were no files or folders on my server at all prior to the
   upload). It takes SO much time to upload all of the wordpress files and I don’t
   want to waste another hour of my time doing that, ya know? Is there something
   that could have gone wrong with the first upload/install attempt that I should
   try to avoid the second time?
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284434)
 * It’s perfectly possible to have a corrupted core file in a fresh install.
 *  Thread Starter [similaustudios](https://wordpress.org/support/users/similaustudios/)
 * (@similaustudios)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284437)
 * I deleted everything and reinstalled and and it worked! I had no idea files could
   be corrupted, so thank you, you were a life-saver!
 * I really appreciate your time and help, thank you so much 🙂
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284438)
 * Glad I could help 🙂

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘PHP Error at Installation Screen’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [parse-error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/parse-error/)
 * [syntax error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/syntax-error/)

 * In: [Installing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/installation/)
 * 7 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/php-error-at-installation-screen/#post-3284438)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics