Knowledgebase

You can easily find the name of the database used by your Joomla application by inspecting its main configuration file called configuration.php.

For example, you may need to find the name of the database used by your Joomla if you are troubleshooting it.

You can find this file in the root folder of your Joomla installation. For example, if you have installed your Joomla in the public_html directory, the file is located there.

The file can easily be previewed with the File Manager tool in your cPanel. Log in to your cPanel -> File Manager.

From the left menu navigate to your Joomla installation (if it is in the public_html folder, click on the public_html, if it is in a subfolder of public_html, expand the public_html content by clicking the + sign in front of the folder and choose the correct subfolder).

You will see the configuration.php file listed in that folder. Simply mark the file and click on the “View” button from the top menu. You will see the content of the file in a new window. Scroll down the file and find the following lines:

    var $dbtype = 'mysql';
    var $host = 'localhost';
    var $user = 'yourusername_mysqluser';
    var $db = 'yourusername_mysqldatabase';
    var $dbprefix = 'prefix_';
    var $password = 'mysqlpassword';

The $db field is the name of your database - yourusername_mysqldatabase;

The $user field is the name of the mysql user added to this database;

The $password field is the password for your MySQL database.

Note that the above names will be different, depending on your cPanel username and the database settings which you have used when you installed your Joomla application.

You can find how to use the File Manager tool from our detailed File Manager tutorial.