A WordPress website in Plesk fails to load: Error establishing a database connection

Symptoms

• A WordPress website fails to load with the following error:

  Error establishing a database connection

• The following error message appears in Domains > example.com > Logs:

  AH01071: Got error 'PHP message: WordPress database error Table 'wordpress_db.K5p5GRQg_sitemeta' doesn't exist for query

Cause

The table mentioned in the error message is missing:

# plesk db
MariaDB [psa]> use wordpress_db
MariaDB [wordpress_db]> select * from wordpress_db.K5p5GRQg_sitemeta;
ERROR 1146 (42S02): Table 'wordpress_db.K5p5GRQg_sitemeta' doesn't exist

Resolution

Apply one of the following solutions:

• Restore the database from a backup
• Contact the website developer