Nexym
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Technology
  • Health
  • Life
  • More
    • Auto
    • Food
    • Health
    • Home
    • Space
    • Travel

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot
Flywheel Logo

Flywheel review in 2023

June 8, 2023
The all-electric F-150 Lighting has a lot to offer for road trips. Find out more about its capabilities and features here!

Why Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning is excellent for road trips

September 9, 2023
If you're looking for the best outdoor lounge chairs, look no further than Amazon. We've compiled a list of the top-rated options to make your decision easier.

The best outdoor chairs you can find on Amazon

September 9, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Nexym
  • Business
    protectteamabusivecustomers featureimage min

    How to protect your team from an abusive customer

    September 7, 2023
    Learn the skills you need to become a great content writer. From writing, editing, and researching to storytelling and creative thinking.

    Top skills you need to become a great content writer

    August 20, 2023
    featured business

    How to see the bigger picture in business

    August 9, 2023
    What is a corporation? What does it mean to be incorporated? How do you start one? Read the definition of corporation, learn the different types of corporations and how to incorporate them.

    What is a corporation? Definition, meaning, types and more

    August 8, 2023
    Many people dream of creating a Starbucks coffee shop chain. Here are three alternatives for how to open a Starbucks franchise in your city.

    The best alternatives to opening a Starbucks franchise

    August 4, 2023
  • Finance
    Find out more about the tax implications of your retirement income based on your yearly taxable earnings.

    Do you pay taxes as a retiree if you earn extra money?

    September 9, 2023
    Learn areas to reduce or eliminate your tax obligation when you receive a settlement.

    How to decrease or eliminate your tax burden on lawsuit settlements

    September 8, 2023
    Learn about the IRS TREAS 310 deposit refund from Social Security and how it relates to your tax return.

    What is a Social Security IRS TREAS 310 deposit?

    September 8, 2023
    Find out what's holding up the tax return process and how you can get access to your money faster.

    Learn why your tax return money is delayed

    September 3, 2023
    Want to experience Singapore Airlines' first class without spending a fortune? Here's how!

    How to book Singapore Airlines’ best first-class seat for cheap

    August 26, 2023
  • Technology
    Flywheel Logo

    Flywheel review in 2023

    June 8, 2023
    Find out how the Xbox Series S compares to more advanced alternatives! We'll tell you everything you need to know, including specs and features.

    How Xbox Series S compares to more advanced alternatives

    September 9, 2023
    How to embed Tik Tok

    How to embed TikTok videos into your WordPress website

    September 7, 2023
    reviewsitewp featureimage min

    How to build a review site in WordPress

    September 7, 2023
    Choosing color scheme for your website

    How to choose the perfect color scheme for your WordPress website

    September 7, 2023
  • Health
  • Life
    Find out which New Balance running shoes are best for your foot type, and how to match them with the other features you're looking for in a shoe.

    5 of the best New Balance running shoes for each foot type and need

    September 9, 2023
    If you're looking for a stylish and comfortable athletic swimsuit fitted for large breasts, check out our list of the top 10 athletic swimsuits.

    The 10 best athletic swimsuits for larger chests

    September 4, 2023
    Learn about the recent rate hikes by Verizon and AT&T, what this means for consumers and how to keep your cell phone bill in check.

    Inflation has finally caught up with cell phone bills – Verizon and AT&T new increased rates

    September 3, 2023
    Spring is almost here, and Walmart has got you covered with the latest trends! Check out these fabulous finds that won't break the bank!

    Surprise! Walmart has awesome spring fashion items

    August 28, 2023
    Find the perfect birthday messages and quotes for a special friend. Share them with your best friend on their birthday!

    28 creative birthday wishes for your best friend

    August 26, 2023
  • More
    • Auto
    • Food
    • Health
    • Home
    • Space
    • Travel
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Flywheel review in 2023
  • Why Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning is excellent for road trips
  • The best outdoor chairs you can find on Amazon
  • Check out these discounts for 7 all-inclusive Caribbean resorts
  • Here are the best shoes for travel and airports
  • 5 of the best New Balance running shoes for each foot type and need
  • Do you pay taxes as a retiree if you earn extra money?
  • The best liquid eyeliners of 2023
Nexym
Home » Technology » WordPress
WordPress

How to edit the WordPress configuration file (wp-config.php)

Matthew DrummondBy Matthew DrummondMay 4, 20238 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Telegram WhatsApp Pinterest Email
editwpconfigfile featureimage
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn

Sometimes, you’ll stumble upon a tutorial that asks you to edit the WordPress configuration file (wp-config.php), so here’s our article that helps explain how it works and how to edit it.

wp-config.php is part of the WordPress Core, and it’s automatically generated whenever you go through the setup of a new WordPress website. It stores various useful information that keeps your website up and running, for example:

  • Database connection information
  • Authentication keys
  • Database table prefix option
  • Debug mode

Default wp-config.php

Here’s how the entire default wp-config.php file looks like:

<?php
/**
 * The base configuration for WordPress
 *
 * The wp-config.php creation script uses this file during the
 * installation. You don't have to use the web site, you can
 * copy this file to "wp-config.php" and fill in the values.
 *
 * This file contains the following configurations:
 *
 * * MySQL settings
 * * Secret keys
 * * Database table prefix
 * * ABSPATH
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/support/article/editing-wp-config-php/
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'database_name_here' );

/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'username_here' );

/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here' );

/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );

/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );

/**#@+
 * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
 *
 * Change these to different unique phrases!
 * You can generate these using the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}
 * You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies. This will force all users to have to log in again.
 *
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
define( 'AUTH_KEY',         'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY',  'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY',    'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY',        'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT',        'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT',   'put your unique phrase here' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT',       'put your unique phrase here' );

/**#@-*/

/**
 * WordPress Database Table prefix.
 *
 * You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each
 * a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
 */
$table_prefix = 'wp_';

/**
 * For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
 *
 * Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
 * It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
 * in their development environments.
 *
 * For information on other constants that can be used for debugging,
 * visit the documentation.
 *
 * @link https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/
 */
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */

/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
	define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );
}

/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php';

As you can see, the majority of the settings are defined using PHP constants, in this format:

define( 'constant_name', 'value');

Edit wp-config.php

Each section is properly documented so you can understand what it’s used for.

To edit the wp-config.php file, you can either:

  • Download it via FTP; edit it on your computer, and then upload it back to your account
  • Edit it directly via the FileManager in your hosting control panel, cPanel control panel > Files section
fm

Before moving to the next step, always make sure to create a backup of your WordPress database and folder.

Let’s explain what each part does!

MySQL Configuration

The first section is related to your website’s database configuration, and to fill this section, you will need your database name, username, and password.

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME', 'database_name_here');
 
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'username_here');
 
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password_here');
 
/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');
 
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
 
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

Authentication keys

The wp-config.php file includes secret authentication security keys and salts, which are additional passwords that provide secure encryption. Together with cookies, they help verify the identity of logged-in site users and commenters. The authentication keys are almost impossible to break since they are long, random and complicated. Here’s how this section looks:

/**#@+
 * Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
 *
 * Change these to different unique phrases!
 * You can generate these using the {@link https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/ WordPress.org secret-key service}
 * You can change these at any point in time to invalidate all existing cookies. This will force all users to have to log in again.
 *
 * @since 2.6.0
 */
define('AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_KEY', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('SECURE_AUTH_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('LOGGED_IN_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
define('NONCE_SALT', 'put your unique phrase here');
 
/**#@-*/

These are generated in the wp-config.php file by default when you install WordPress. However, if you suspect that your website security could be compromised, you can create new WordPress security keys here and paste them in the authentication section.

This action will log out all currently logged-in users on your site and they will be required to log in again.

WordPress database table prefix

WordPress automatically adds a wp_ prefix to all database tables created through it to differentiate them, and this setting can be changed in the wp-config.php file as well:

/**
 * WordPress Database Table prefix.
 *
 * You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each
 * a unique prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
 */
$table_prefix = 'wp_';

However, it’s not recommended to change this value after the installation as it’s not straightforward. You’ll need to rename all your database tables to match the new prefix, and update options and usermeta tables.

Some advanced users like to change this setting to make it difficult for hackers to execute common SQL injection attacks.

Debugging mode

WordPress hides errors and notices by default, and those don’t show on the website unless debugging mode is enabled. Here’s how the WordPress debug mode looks inside the wp-config.php file:

define('WP_DEBUG', false);

You can force WordPress to show errors and warnings that can help you in theme and plugin debugging by changing the value to True. However, if you are working on a live site, you should consider disabling the debug mode for website security reasons.

When the value is set to true, errors and warnings can be shown to anyone, which may give hackers sensitive information to find a vulnerability to exploit. The ‘false’ value is the default value and means that debug mode is disabled.

Absolute path settings

This section can be ignored as it’s already set up, and helps WordPress configure variables and included files via absolute path.

/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */  
  
/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */  
  
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {  
  
 define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );  
  
}  
  
/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */  
  
require_onceABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php';

Advanced tips and tricks

You can also use some advanced wp-config.php settings to troubleshoot problems and fix some basic WordPress errors.

Upload directory

If you want to change your default upload directory for your media, you can do so by adding the following variable to the wp-config.php file:

define( 'UPLOADS', 'wp-content/media' );

Make sure to change wp-content/media to the desired directory name and location.

Disable automatic updates

Automatic updates are fantastic for security; however, in some cases – they can break websites as not all plugins and themes are updated for new WordPress versions immediately.

You can disable automatic updates by adding the following line to your wp-config.php file:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );

Make sure to keep your WordPress core and all plugins and themes updated to avoid potential security issues.

Change your website URL

If you want to move your website to the new domain, you need to configure WordPress for this as well. You can change your home and site URLs from your WordPress dashboard > Settings > General page, but in case you’re not able to access it, you can also do this via wp-config.php file by adding the following lines:

define('WP_HOME','http://yourdomain.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://yourdomain.com');

Make sure to adjust yourdomain.com to your new domain name.

Adjust MySQL port and sockets

If you’re on one of our managed plans, you’ll never have to touch it, but if needed, you can adjust the database hostname and port like this via wp-config.php file:

define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost:XXXX' );

(Replace localhost and XXXX with the correct database server hostname and port)

Limit post revisions

WordPress keeps saves of your post and page edits in its revision system automatically, and if you have a big website – this could result in a massive amount of data. This makes it harder to operate and back up your website. You can limit the number of revisions WordPress keeps for each post via this line of code:

define( 'WP_POST_REVISIONS', 4 );

Replace the number 4 with the number of revisions you want to keep, and WordPress will automatically dismiss the older changes.

People also viewed:

editauthorwpwebsite featureimageHow to edit the author in WordPress poweredbywp featureimageHow to edit the ‘Powered by WordPress’ text and link in the footer area 3bestwaysspeedwpwebsite featureimageThe 3 best ways to speed up your WordPress website howtosetupforumswp featureimageHow to set up forums on WordPress using the bbPress plugin disablewpcronspeedwp featureimageHow to speed up WordPress by disabling WP-cron
configuration edit WordPress wp-config wp-config.php
Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Telegram WhatsApp Pinterest Email
Previous ArticleBest WordPress themes for building an Ecommerce website
Next Article Best WordPress plugins for metrics and analytics to measure traffic
Matthew Drummond

Matthew is a Nexym Technology writer. Having worked as a systems administrator for over 15 years gives him unique insight into the inner works of technology. Ultimately his passion for writing brought him to share his technical expertise with the world.

Related Stories

3bestwaysspeedwpwebsite featureimage

The 3 best ways to speed up your WordPress website

September 7, 2023
editauthorwpwebsite featureimage

How to edit the author in WordPress

March 1, 2023
howtosetupforumswp featureimage

How to set up forums on WordPress using the bbPress plugin

February 18, 2023
poweredbywp featureimage

How to edit the ‘Powered by WordPress’ text and link in the footer area

March 31, 2022

Comments are closed.

Connect
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • TikTok
Don't Miss
Flywheel Logo Reviews

Flywheel review in 2023

By Matthew Drummond

Flywheel is a fast-growing web host that offers high-performance WordPress hosting for agencies, designers, and developers.

The all-electric F-150 Lighting has a lot to offer for road trips. Find out more about its capabilities and features here!

Why Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning is excellent for road trips

September 9, 2023
If you're looking for the best outdoor lounge chairs, look no further than Amazon. We've compiled a list of the top-rated options to make your decision easier.

The best outdoor chairs you can find on Amazon

September 9, 2023
Planning a vacation to the Caribbean? Check out these seven all-inclusive resorts that are offering steep discounts.

Check out these discounts for 7 all-inclusive Caribbean resorts

September 9, 2023
  • Auto
    • Auto Reviews
    • Electric
    • Insurance
  • Business
    • Company
    • Government
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Finance
    • Credit Cards
    • Crypto
    • Market
    • Personal Finance
  • Food
    • Coffee
    • Drinks
    • Holidays
  • Health
  • Beauty
  • Fitness
  • Food
  • Medical
  • Home
  • Backyard
  • Bathroom
  • Bedroom
  • Cleaning
  • Furniture
  • Home Office
  • Kitchen
  • Life
  • Astrology
  • Family
  • Fashion
  • Outdoors
  • Personal
  • Pets
  • Apple
  • Audio
  • Domain Names
  • Gaming
  • Google
  • Power
  • Reviews
  • Samsung
  • Destinations
  • Gear
  • Services
  • Space
  • Tourism
  • Technology
  • Tutorials
  • Web Hosting
  • WiFi
  • WordPress
  • Travel
  • Shopping
  • Sports
  • Work
  • Stocks
  • Television
  • Web Hosting
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube LinkedIn Reddit TikTok
© 2023 Nexym Media

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.