Introduction
This guide has been tested on Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04 and 16.04. It should also work for other Debian-based distributions without issue. For CentOS users, please refer to the comments section at the end of this page as commands will be different. I will try to update this guide for CentOS as soon as I get the chance to test it. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions on how to improve this guide, please let me know in the comments.
1. Back up phpMyAdmin
You should back up your current phpMyAdmin folder by renaming it.
sudo mv /usr/share/phpmyadmin/ /usr/share/phpmyadmin.bakCreate a new phpMyAdmin folder
sudo mkdir /usr/share/phpmyadmin/Change to directory
cd /usr/share/phpmyadmin/2. Download and Extract phpMyAdmin
Update Feb 2020: phpMyAdmin 5 has been released but it is only compatible with PHP 7.1 and above. To find out your PHP version in command line, run php -v.
phpMyAdmin version 4.x is now in the LTS phase, where only security fixes and critical bug fixes are made. Users are advised to migrate to version 5 (read more).
- For PHP 7.1 and above, download phpMyAdmin 5.x
- For PHP 5.5 to PHP 7.4, download phpMyAdmin-4.9.7
Visit the phpMyAdmin download page and look for the .tar.gz URL and download it using wget. In this guide we are using version 5.0.4, released October 2020. If a later version is now available, make sure to change the commands below to match (and let me know in the comments so I can update the guide 😉). If you are having issues with phpMyAdmin 5.x, try phpMyAdmin-4.9.7 instead.
sudo wget https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpMyAdmin/5.0.4/phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languages.tar.gzNow extract
sudo tar xzf phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languages.tar.gzOnce extracted, list folder
lsYou should see a new folder phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languages
We want to move the contents of this folder to /usr/share/phpmyadmin
sudo mv phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languages/* /usr/share/phpmyadminYou can now log back into phpMyAdmin and check the current version. You may also see two errors:
3. Edit vendor_config.php
If you are seeing an error The $cfg[‘TempDir’] (./tmp/) is not accessible. phpMyAdmin is not able to cache templates and will be slow because of this.
Open vendor_config.php
sudo nano /usr/share/phpmyadmin/libraries/vendor_config.phpPress CTRL + W and search for TEMP_DIR
Change line to
define('TEMP_DIR', '/var/lib/phpmyadmin/tmp/');You may also see an error The configuration file now needs a secret passphrase (blowfish_secret). The blowfish secret is used by phpMyAdmin for cookie authentication. 
Press CTRL + W and search for CONFIG_DIR
Change line to
define('CONFIG_DIR', '/etc/phpmyadmin/');phpMyAdmin will now generate its own blowfish secret based on the install directory.
Save file and exit. (Press CTRL + X, press Y and then press ENTER)
Now log back in to phpMyAdmin and ensure the errors are gone.
If you are seeing an error “The secret passphrase in configuration (blowfish_secret) is too short.”, see below.
If you are having issues with phpMyAdmin 5, try phpMyAdmin-4.9.7 instead as this is the latest stable release for PHP 7.0 and lower and MySQL 5.4 and lower.
4. Cleanup
You can now delete the tar.gz file and the empty folder.
sudo rm /usr/share/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languages.tar.gzsudo rm -rf /usr/share/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-5.0.4-all-languagesAnd if you’re certain your new phpMyAdmin install is working correctly you can delete the backup folder.
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/phpmyadmin.bakHurrah!
Blowfish Secret Error “Too Short”
If you are seeing an error “The secret passphrase in configuration (blowfish_secret) is too short.”
Open blowfish_secret.inc.php:
sudo nano /var/lib/phpmyadmin/blowfish_secret.inc.phpClick here to generate a 32-character random phrase.
Copy it and paste it into blowfish_secret.inc.php.
<?php
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '32_char_random_phrase_here';Save and exit (press CTRL + X, press Y and then press ENTER)
4.97 (302 votes)Let me know if this helped. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, or 🍊 buy me a smoothie.
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431 replies
Thank you very much for that tutorial!
This is the first How-To I have followed to the letter that worked the first time in a long time! Thank you for the effort.
Fantastic. Did the job perfectly.
Fantastic instructions!
Thanks very much – worked a treat on Raspberry Pi OS (Buster).
upgrade process worked great, been fighting this for a while, and you saved me! well done!
Muchas gracias por el turorial!!
Funcionou perfeitamente
just perfect
And really well detailed! Great Job
Awesome.
Worked and works like a charm.
Efficient tutorial.
JUST AWESOME OMG THANKS. ahah, sorry.
Thanks a lot!
That is a great tutorial. But in my case when trying to open phpMyAdmin, it gave me a Permission denier error. So I had to run chmod 777 /var/lib/php/session/ then it worked.
Very good. Thank you very much!
error
The $cfg[‘TempDir’] (/usr/share/phpmyadmin/tmp/) is not accessible. phpMyAdmin is not able to cache templates and will be slow because of this.
Very nice guide! Thanks a lot!
Kudos and greetings from Germany!
This is the best tutorial ever I’ve followed online.
Thanks for the clear explaination..
Some Kudo’s for you!
Thanks a lot. This is great and life-saving for me.
Great walkthrough, thanks!
Thank you
This is just brilliant!
Thank you soo much.
Awesome! Case does matter though in centos it’s /usr/share/phpMyAdmin/
Worked all great! Thanks.
Thanks. Worked perfectly once I found MY typo!
Followed all steps and now phpmydamin just opens to a blank page. Rebooting made no difference.
Resolved – it was a typo
Awesome tutorial!
Thank you so much!
I had some trouble, but after copying the old “config.inc.php” over, everything runs perfect.
Great Tutorial ! I don’t know what exactly happened but after closely following the instructions to install phpmyadmin I get the infamous 4O4 ERROR – URL not found on this server. Every other thing worked as per the instructions.
Thanks for the awesome tutorial
New Version of phpMyAdmin 🙂
Thanks for this complete tutorial ^^
Updated 🙂
There is again a new version (5.0.4) ^^
Updated, thanks.
Great article. Very professionnal. Thanks.
Hello, I have a question, I really don’t know if you can help me, but if you do, I would appreciate it too much! The problem is the following: I have a VPS, in it I put the Phpmyadmin, mysql, etc …, I also installed the OGP (Open Game Panel), the fact is that when I create the database of one of my server games, everything is fine, it connects well and everything, but when I enter the game and try to register, it does not let me, I get that the account “supposedly already exists”, but in reality it does not exist, a table must be created in the table ” users ” with the user’s data, but it is not like that, I get that error, if you could help me I would appreciate it, I know it does not have much to do with what you published, but I am new to this and I do not know how to fix it .
Postscript: It is not the game, since the game is called “SAMP” (San Andreas MultiPlayer) and actually in other VPS if it works well, but not in mine, then the problem must be with MySQL or PhpMyAdmin, but I really don’t know.
Thank you you saved my installation and my life.
Great tutorial – Thank you !
very good
nice job bro
One problem with 5.0.2 was I had no tmp directory under /var/lib/phpMyAdmin (it is phpMyAdmin not phpmyadmin). Created the tmp directory, changed ownership as apache:apache, made sure it had write permissions. Had to restart httpd for these config changes. Then errors went away.
When I set tmp pointer, site stopped working (did not exist – I did not confirm first).
Centos7
5.5.65-MariaDB – MariaDB Serve
Apache/2.4.6 (CentOS) PHP/7.3.22
phpMyAdmin: 5.0.2
Great. I hate it when they keep updating shit so fast, and compatibility errors start occurring, but I love it when guys like you give us an simple fix.
Perfect Article! Thank you mate 🙂
Thank you! Perfecto!
Perfection, the smoothest process I have ever experienced. Well done on this tutorial.
Thank you so much for this AWESOME tutorial! Every step was worked perfectly.
wow, just fantastic steps, every step was described, even how to save and exit editor in linus, Thank you
Good tutorial
This is one of the best support pages I have experienced in my entire coding life span. I am 80 years old, I started learning how to code 5 years ago and in my humble opinion it is not easy, however it becomes easier to understand each day I continue to learn. This particular page was extremely helpful with your detailed and specific instructions/guidelines. They (instructions/guidelines) were easy to understand and follow, I did not have to go to another page to get explanations for anything. THANKS, I really like your style.
T.R.E.B.
Thanks for the comment. Never too old to code! 😎
Great post!
Thank you so much!
Unfortunately your tutorial seems to have made things worse, with an error coming up:
Error during session start; please check your PHP and/or webserver log file and configure your PHP installation properly. Also ensure that cookies are enabled in your browser.
session_write_close(): write failed: No space left on device (28)
session_write_close(): Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (/var/lib/php/sessions)
If anyone has any answers, then would be much appreciated!
What disitrubtion of Linux are you using and version?