php artisan migrate throwing [PDO Exception] Could not find driver - Using Laravel

Question

I have a bad experience while installing laravel. However, I was able to do so and move to the next level. I used generators and created my migrations. But when I type the last command

php artisan migrate

It's throwing a PDOException - could not find driver.

       'mysql' => array(
            'driver'    => 'mysql',
            'host'      => 'localhost',
            'unix_socket'   => '/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock',
            'database'  => 'database',
            'username'  => 'root',
            'password'  => '',
            'charset'   => 'utf8',
            'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
            'prefix'    => '',
        ),

That's my configuration in config/database.php.

I tried searching on stackoverflow and laravel forums and people suggest that it's PDO problem and not artisan's or php's - I followed those suggestions like adding

extension=pgsql.so
extension=pdo_pgsql.so

in php.ini

No positive result. It always says [PDOException]could not find driver.

Can someone please help resolving this.

Environment that I am using: Mac, laravel 4, MAMP PRO with php 5.4.4

Yes I have... sorry pasted only 2 extensions, but I do have extension=imap.so extension=yaz.so extension=mcrypt.so extension=gettext.so extension=pgsql.so extension=pdo_pgsql.so extension=pdo_mysql.so — Vamshi Vangapally
– Vamshi Vangapally, Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 19:38
And are you sure that the module is enabled? In LAMP a module can be enabled using sudo a2enmod <module>. Look at your phpinfo() if the driver is enabled. — Mariano Córdoba
– Mariano Córdoba, Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 19:44
on phpinfo() - it shows that PDO drivers for sqlite, pgsql, mysql are enabled! — Vamshi Vangapally
– Vamshi Vangapally, Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 19:47
As you are using the CLI try running php -i | less and looking to see if the PDO extension is actually being loaded. If not then you will need to amend your php.ini file that is used by the CLI which is not the same one as is used by Apache. It usually lives in the same directory as the PHP exe but thats on windows, not sure where it would be on a mac. but this guy does stackoverflow.com/questions/2750580/… — RiggsFolly
– RiggsFolly, Commented Apr 29, 2014 at 13:34

Hemen Ashodia · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-04 22:10:29Z

103

You can use

sudo apt-get install php7-mysql

or

sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

or

sudo apt-get install php-mysql

This worked for me.

edited Sep 4, 2016 at 22:10

Hemen Ashodia

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answered Aug 29, 2016 at 21:22

narendro

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6 Comments

Niroj Adhikary Over a year ago

sudo apt-get install php-mysql This worked for me. Thanks mate

The Unknown Dev Over a year ago

If you're not sure which, check your PHP version with php --version and install the corresponding driver.

Mike Robinson Over a year ago

When running the current version of Ubuntu, three years later, I too found that this solution solved my problem. apt-cache search mysql | grep php showed me that the package name I needed was now php7.2-mysql ... I installed it and the problem went away.

Carlos Salles Over a year ago

I was using WSL with a docker container inside it, when i call php artisan test inside the wsl, it gives the no driver error, but when i call it inside the container, it works. Installing php-mysql on wsl ( where i was running the php artisan test originally ) solves the problem. Thanks man!

James Bond Over a year ago

For docker: RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y libzip-dev && docker-php-ext-install mysqli pdo pdo_mysql

|

JaTochNietDan · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-17 19:44:16Z

29

You need to specifically enable the pdo_mysql plugin. Assuming you're using a standard PHP installation, then generally you would simply need to add this to your PHP.ini file:

extension=pdo_mysql.so

You need to ensure that this file exists in the extension directory though.

Adding pdo_pgsql.so doesn't help because that is for PostgreSQL.

Additionally, you should ensure that you restart the web-server after you make the changes to the PHP ini file, as the changes may not be reflected otherwise.

edited Mar 17, 2014 at 19:44

answered Mar 17, 2014 at 19:34

JaTochNietDan

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5 Comments

Vamshi Vangapally Over a year ago

How can I check if that file exists in extension directory?

JaTochNietDan Over a year ago

Generally your extension directory would be where you installed PHP under in ./ext, for example on Windows it's C:\Program Files (x86)\PHP\ext by default using PHP's installer package.

Vamshi Vangapally Over a year ago

extension_dir ="/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.4.4/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525/" is pointing to this and that folder has all the required .so files

JaTochNietDan Over a year ago

Have you restarted the webserver after making the appropriate changes to the PHP ini file?

Rick Over a year ago

After setting up the configuration make sure you restart the web server sudo service apache2 restart

Alex · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-03 02:37:49Z

20

This worked for me:

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite

This installed sqlite for php5, then I ran the php artisan migrate command again and worked perfectly.

answered Apr 3, 2015 at 2:37

Alex

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3 Comments

Zane Over a year ago

Fixed my issue while trying to run phpunit on the main Laravel Framework.

tombrown52 Over a year ago

I don't understand why, but installing php5-sqlite caused PDO mysql to work correctly. Thanks!

garrettendi Over a year ago

Recent versions of Ubuntu do not contain this package. For 16.04, run: sudo apt-get install php-sqlite3

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:47:20Z

18

Ran into the same issue here, and turns out this is because PHP at the command line uses a different php.ini file from the browser version, which is why it looks like it's loading the extension correctly when you look at phpinfo() in a browser.

As per this answer, you just need to run:

php --ini

At the command line, which will tell you the path to the currently loaded php.ini (probably actually a php-cli.ini file located in the same place as your regular php.ini file).

Once you've found that, modify it with the pdo extensions you want (in this case for MySQL):

extension=pdo_mysql.so

Or, for any other users that are on Windows using some kind of WAMP server, it probably looks like this instead:

extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:47

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 5, 2014 at 11:39

Leith

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Comments

Hemen Ashodia · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05 13:31:51Z

6

I think you missed the mysql driver for php5. Execute below command:

sudo apt-get install php5-mysql
/etc/init.d/php5-fpm restart

edited Sep 5, 2016 at 13:31

Hemen Ashodia

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answered May 6, 2016 at 6:28

Robin Wang

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Comments

Stephen Rauch · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-23 03:38:09Z

6

You must be installing the latest version of php mysql in my case I am install php7.1-mysql

Try this

sudo apt-get install php7.1-mysql

I am using the latest version of laravel

edited Sep 23, 2017 at 3:38

Stephen Rauch♦

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answered Sep 23, 2017 at 3:18

Jalalkun

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Comments

abhishek subedi · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-28 08:28:48Z

5

You are missing a PDO driver.

First install the driver

For ubuntu: For mysql database.

sudo apt-get install php5.6-mysql/php7.2-mysql

You also can search for other database systems.

You also can search for the driver:

sudo apt-cache search drivername

Then Run the cmd php artisan migrate

answered Jul 28, 2017 at 8:28

abhishek subedi

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1 Comment

Mike Robinson Over a year ago

When running the current Ubuntu, four years later, I found that this suggestion solved my problem perfectly.

Thach Van · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-27 15:03:49Z

4

Please check your Laravel .env file also. Make sure DB_CONNECTION=mysql, otherwise it won't work with MySQL. It tried to load something else.

answered Mar 27, 2016 at 15:03

Thach Van

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Comments

Praveen Mendegar · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-04 10:49:16Z

4

This worked with me:(for pgsql: use 'pgsql' instead of 'mysql')

Step 1)

sudo apt-get install php-mysql

Step 2)

php artisan config:clear

Step 3)

php artisan config:cache

Step 4)
Then restart your server, and generate key again and migrate it, Its Done

edited Jun 4, 2018 at 10:49

answered Jun 4, 2018 at 10:07

Praveen Mendegar

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Comments

Khuram · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-18 09:06:51Z

3

I got this error for the PostgreSQL and the solution is:

sudo apt-get install php7.1-pgsql

You only need to use your installed PHP version, mine is 7.1. This has fixed the issue for PostgreSQL.

answered Jul 18, 2018 at 9:06

Khuram

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Comments

Entrust · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-02 11:49:59Z

2

Had the same issue and just figured, website is running under MAMP's php, but when you call in command, it runs mac's(if no bash path modified). you will have issue when mac doesn't have those extensions.

run php -i to find out loaded extensions, and install those one you missed. or run '/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/bin/php artisan {your command}' to use MAMP's

answered Apr 2, 2015 at 11:49

Entrust

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1 Comment

Ali Nazari Over a year ago

/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.5.26/bin/php artisan migrate this command worked for me. tnx a lot :*

hmmm · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-14 07:37:48Z

2

I was also getting the same error --> "[PDOException]
could not find driver "

After that I used many commands but not didn't get any help

Finally I used the following command, which solved my problem.

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite

answered Jul 14, 2015 at 7:37

hmmm

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1 Comment

IIllIIll Over a year ago

That's great! What about Mac?

Sagar Koshti · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-19 12:15:45Z

2

Laravel Testing with sqlite needs php pdo sqlite drivers

For Ubuntu 14.04

sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite
sudo service apache2 restart

In ubuntu 16.04 there is no php5-sqlite

sudo apt-get install php7.0-sqlite
sudo service apache2 restart

answered Oct 19, 2016 at 12:15

Sagar Koshti

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

1

I'm unsing ubuntu 14.04

Below command solved this problem for me.

sudo apt-get install php-mysql

In my case, after updating my php version from 5.5.9 to 7.0.8 i received this error including two other errors.

errors:

laravel/framework v5.2.14 requires ext-mbstring * -> the requested PHP extension mbstring is missing from your system.
phpunit/phpunit 4.8.22 requires ext-dom * -> the requested PHP extension dom is missing from your system.
[PDOException]
could not find driver

Solutions:

I installed this packages and my problems are gone.

sudo apt-get install php-mbstring

sudo apt-get install php-xml

sudo apt-get install php-mysql

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 18, 2016 at 7:10

sh6210

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Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:22:39Z

1

I had this problem on debian. The issue was, I was using the dotdeb repository for more recent PHP packages. For some reason, it updated the php cli to 7.0, while the web php binary remained php 5.6. I used this answer to link the php command line binary to the 5.6 version, like so:

$ sudo ln -sfn /usr/bin/php5 /etc/alternatives/php

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:22

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 4, 2016 at 3:12

user151841

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1 Comment

Bantu Over a year ago

The linked answer help me out in my debian 9, i needed to update alternatives to php5.6. Thanks

Jignesh Joisar · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-28 13:38:15Z

1

first check your php version like this :

php -v

after you get version number for example i get 7.1 then install like that

sudo apt-get install  php7.1-sqlite     //for laravel testing with sqlite
sudo apt-get install  php-mysql         //for default mysql
sudo apt-get install  php7.1-mysql      //for version based mysql 
sudo apt-get install  php7.1-common     //for other necessary package for php

and need to restart apache2

sudo service apache2 restart

edited May 28, 2019 at 13:38

answered May 28, 2019 at 13:20

Jignesh Joisar

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Comments

Aleksey Potapov · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-16 20:15:39Z

0

For future searchers. On FreeBSD try the next

pkg_info | grep php5-pdo_mysql

if you see the empty line in return do the following:

cd /usr/ports/databases/php5-pdo_mysql

and the do the install

make install clean

then simply restart your apache and you are done

e.g. sudo /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 restart

answered Jan 16, 2015 at 20:15

Aleksey Potapov

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briankip · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-21 19:46:48Z

0

Install it via this command

sudo apt-get install php5-gd

this worked for me.

answered Jan 21, 2015 at 19:46

briankip

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Sven P · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-03 11:43:50Z

0

In my case I wasn't aware that the PHP run by Apache was different from the one run by CLI. That might be the case if during configuration in httpd.conf you specified a PHP module, not being the default one your CLI uses.

answered Apr 3, 2016 at 11:43

Sven P

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1 Comment

DavidHyogo Over a year ago

I've expanded on this in my answer. I always forget that the Apache PHP and the CLI PHP might be different.

lewis4u · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-28 11:51:55Z

0

I found the proper solution for this error! Either you don't have any database installed or your default database in this file config/database.php is set to some other database like this

'default' => 'sqlite',
'default' => env('DB_CONNECTION', 'sqlite'), //laravel 5.2

change the default to which one you have installed or install that database which is made to be default! I had installed mysql and php artisan migrate worked after i changed that line to this:

'default' => 'mysql',
'default' => env('DB_CONNECTION', 'mysql'), //laravel5.2

edited Apr 28, 2016 at 11:51

answered Apr 27, 2016 at 13:57

lewis4u

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lightup · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-07 09:24:52Z

0

I was also getting the same error --> "[PDOException] could not find driver "

I realized that the php was pointing to /usr/bin/php instead of the lampp /opt/lampp/bin/php so i simply created and alias

alias php="/opt/lampp/bin/php"

also had to make update to the .env file to ensure the database access credentials were updated.

And guess what, it Worked!

answered Jul 7, 2016 at 9:24

lightup

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Arlyn · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-08 15:37:38Z

0

If you are using Laravel 5.x, and the error is from trying to modify the attributes of a column, it is possible the error comes from a missing pre-requisite.

Try this:

 composer require doctrine/dbal

Then try running your migrations.

From here: https://laravel.com/docs/master/migrations#modifying-columns

answered Aug 8, 2016 at 15:37

Arlyn

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nayan verma · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-07 17:32:01Z

0

If you are using arch based system like in manjaro

just use

sudo pacman -S php-sqlite

Restart your httpd

systemctl restart httpd

answered Feb 7, 2019 at 17:32

nayan verma

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abel406 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-11 15:31:45Z

0

for those users of windows 10 and WAMP that found this post, i have a solution.Please go visit this link. It worked for me and it was difficult to come to the solution but i hope it might be of help for others in the future.

answered Feb 11, 2019 at 15:31

abel406

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Crazy Alien · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-11 21:28:58Z

0

Assuming you did the normal installation with virtual box, vagrant etc.. This can happen to new people. PHP can be installed on your PC but all the modules PHP for your laravel project is on your VM So to access your VM, go to your homestead folder and type: vagrant ssh

then to go your project path and execute the php artisan migrate.

answered Dec 11, 2019 at 21:28

Crazy Alien

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whynot · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-13 15:06:00Z

0

It's an issue with MAC and MAMP. Try to add in your .env file this:

DB_SOCKET= /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

It work for me

answered Mar 13, 2021 at 15:06

whynot

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Comments

DavidHyogo · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-22 02:29:45Z

This expands on Sven P's answer:

I was baffled by this error message myself when upgrading to a new DigitalOcean Droplet running Ubuntu 20.04 and Laravel 8.x. One thing to keep in mind is that you are running php artisan migrate on the command line and that might be different from the version of PHP you're running on Apache server. My Laravel test apps were working smoothly, but I couldn't run Postgresql related commands from the command line. Then I remembered that the default version of PHP for Ubuntu 20.04 was 8.x and I had configured my Apache server to run PHP 7.4. This tutorial was my salvation: How To Switch PHP Version on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Check your PHP version. Sure enough, my CLI PHP was version 8.x so it didn't have the Postgresql driver installed and enabled. Following the tutorial, I ran

sudo update-alternatives --config php

and selected my PHP 7.4 installation and now when I log in to my SSH client and check the PHP version, it displays 7.4, where I have installed and enabled Postgresql. So now my php artisan migrate command runs smoothly and I can get back to work.

This tip is relevant to any database connection you're using. For instance, if you normally used MySQL for your Apache apps, you would have the same error if your CLI PHP version was different and didn't have MySQL installed and enabled.

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