[Solved] An Exception Occurred in The Driver: Could Not Find Driver

Activate the extensions or add the absolute path for a quick fix

by Kazim Ali Alvi
Kazim Ali Alvi
Kazim Ali Alvi
Author
Kazim has always been fond of technology, be it scrolling through the settings on his iPhone, Android device, or Windows PC. He's specialized in hardware devices, always ready... read more
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  • To fix An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver, check the file names and paths, and install MySQL.
  • Keep reading to find more verified solutions from our experts!
fix an exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver

When running a Symphony app, users often get the An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver error followed by the configured driver path. This is the case when the app uses the MySQL database.

The error usually appears when MySQL is not installed, you have incorrect file names, critical files are missing or stored in the wrong directory, or the required extensions are not installed or activated.

How do I fix the An exception occurred in the driver error?

Before we start with the slightly complex solutions, try these quick ones:

  • Make sure you have saved the .env.local with a period (.) before the file name and that it’s stored in the app/ directory. Both app/.env and app/.env.local need to be stored in the same directory.
  • Run the command inside the PHP container instead of the PC’s default terminal.
  • Ensure the php.ini is named as such and not php.ini-prod after editing.
In this article

1. Install MySQL and its drivers

Install MySQL by running the following command in the terminal: sudo apt install php-mysql

For those running Linux, use this command to install the missing extensions: sudo apt-get install php-mysql php-pdo

If you use Docker, use this command to install the MySQL drivers: RUN docker-php-ext-install pdo pdo_mysql

2. Activate the extensions

In the php.ini file, add the path where xampp installed the extensions next to extension_dir. For instance, it could be: C:\xampp\php\ext

Now, activate the following extensions:

  • extension=bz2
    extension=curl
    extension=fileinfo
    extension=gd2
    extension=gettext
    extension=mbstring
    extension=exif
    extension=mysqli
    extension=pdo_mysql
    extension=pdo_sqlite

3. Add the absolute path

Add the absolute path (could be different in your case) to extensions_dir with the following command: extension_dir = "c:\php5\ext"

Once done, restart the web server and check for improvements.

4. Replace 127.0.0.1 with Localhost

If you are getting the An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver error while running: php bin/console doctrine:database:create
or
symfony console doctrine:database:create

Replace 127.0.0.1 with localhost in DATABASE_URL. It finally becomes: DATABASE_URL="mysql://db_user:db_password@localhost:3306/db_name?serverVersion=5.7&charset=utf8mb4"

The solution has been confirmed to work by many users. You should try this even if both [email protected] and root@localhost are stored in the MySQL user table.

5. Reinstall PHP’s PostgreSQL and remove unused PHP versions

  1. Remove Symphony from the computer. Check the ~/.symfony directory or any other location where it may be stored.
  2. Now, run the following command to remove PHP’s PostgreSQL: sudo apt-get --purge remove php-pgsql
  3. Remove the unused PHP version with this command (the version may differ in your case): sudo apt-get purge 'php5.6'
  4. Use this command to install PHP’s PostgreSQL: sudo apt-get install php-pgsql
  5. Finally, download Symphony from the official website for your operating system and check for improvements.symphony

One of these solutions should have helped fix the An exception occurred in the driver: could not find driver error. Remember, the error may arise from trivial misconfigurations to major corruption, and you will have to tackle it appropriately.

Before you leave, learn how to install Apache on Windows 11 and prevent similar errors from arising!

For any queries or to share what worked for you, drop a comment below.

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