Knowledgebase
I cannot upload big dump files (memory, HTTP or timeout problems).
Starting with version phpMyAdmin 2.7.0, the import engine has been re–written and these problems should not occur. If possible, upgrade your phpMyAdmin to the latest version to take advantage of the new import features.
The first thing to read is http://php.net/fileupload and check (or ask your host provider to check) the values of file_uploads, upload_max_filesize, memory_limit, upload_tmp_dir, max_input_time and post_max_size in the php.ini configuration file. All of these three settings limit the maximum size of data that can be submitted and handled by PHP. One user also said that post_max_size and memory_limit need to be larger than upload_max_filesize (don't forget to restart your webserver after changes). PhpMyAdmin can handle compressed files very well (if supported by your PHP installation, "gzip" being most reliable, the "zip" dumps sometimes fail on import when originating from a different OS/php version).
There exist several workarounds if your upload is too big or your hosting provider is unwilling to change the settings:
The first thing to read is http://php.net/fileupload and check (or ask your host provider to check) the values of file_uploads, upload_max_filesize, memory_limit, upload_tmp_dir, max_input_time and post_max_size in the php.ini configuration file. All of these three settings limit the maximum size of data that can be submitted and handled by PHP. One user also said that post_max_size and memory_limit need to be larger than upload_max_filesize (don't forget to restart your webserver after changes). PhpMyAdmin can handle compressed files very well (if supported by your PHP installation, "gzip" being most reliable, the "zip" dumps sometimes fail on import when originating from a different OS/php version).
There exist several workarounds if your upload is too big or your hosting provider is unwilling to change the settings:
- Look at the $cfg['UploadDir'] feature. This allows one to upload a file to the server via SCP, FTP, or your favorite file transfer method. PhpMyAdmin is then able to import the files from there (without the above mentioned limitations). More information is available in the Configuration section of this document.
- Using a utility (such as BigDump or MySQLDumper) to split the files before uploading. We cannot support this or any third party applications, but are aware of users having success with it.
- If you have shell (command line) access, use MySQL to import the files directly. You can do this by issuing the "source" command from within MySQL: source filename.sql.