For WordPress users, if you’re considering a php upgrade from 5.3 to 5.6 (or higher), and if you’re on CPanel and planning to do the “Switch PHP Version” route, take note:

Find the php.ini file in your wp-admin folder. If it exists, then rename the file to something else.

Why? Because you don’t want to be in a situation like me where you get the dreaded:

Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.

If you’re an old Exabytes customer like me, this is due to Exabytes’ hosting configs. Previously everyone ran on the same php version, and so php.ini was used to disable/enable specific functions. However, when we were moved to a multi-php installation, this was redundant. In fact, leaving it in causes issues, as you can tell. As long as your plugins were not broken, it should be fine to simply rename the php.ini file. That should solve your problem!

Also, image was done in Canva. They have a tonne of awesome free templates with which to create blog sites and the like with, so go check them out!