I had to reinstall Xampp now Wordpress wants to reinstall

Question

I somehow corrupted my Xampp installation and had to reinstall it. Before I did, I backed up the WordPress database folder and my WordPress site folder to another location and moved them back after Xampp reinstalled. But now WordPress wants to reinstall. I found online that WordPress will try to install again if the table prefixes don't match what is in the WP_config file. But I checked the WP_config file and all of the database settings are correct and match the database.

I am still learning WordPress and it took me a week to get my site where it is now. I don't want to lose a week's work. I need to know how to get WordPress to open to my site like it's supposed to instead of trying to reinstall WordPress.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. — Community
– Community Bot, Commented Sep 1 at 16:13
What happens if you follow the steps of the reinstallation wizard? (You've got a backup anyway, so little harm in trying.) — C3roe
– C3roe, Commented Sep 2 at 7:20
Good suggestion, and it may have worked, but for some reason I deleted the backup before I tried. So I guess I'm starting over again. I have to say, for a coder who is used to building a site from the ground up with code, WordPress is very daunting. — Barry Beach
– Barry Beach, Commented Sep 2 at 14:59

Shaharyar Afzal · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-04 20:24:08Z

0

WordPress shows the “Install” screen if:

It cannot connect to the database (wrong credentials in wp-config.php).
It connects but doesn’t find the correct tables (wrong table prefix or missing tables).
The database is connected but the key siteurl (in wp_options) doesn’t match the URL you’re using.

Since you already checked the DB credentials + table prefix, the issue is almost always missing/misnamed tables or a wrong database import.

Sometimes, just copying the MySQL data folder (instead of exporting/importing) can break things. If the DB doesn’t appear properly:

Export the backup .sql file if you have it.

Or:

Stop MySQL in XAMPP.
Replace the database folder inside xampp/mysql/data/.
Restart MySQL.

If it still fails, create a new empty DB, then import your .sql backup.

answered Sep 4 at 20:24

Shaharyar Afzal

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