importing db phpMyAdmin - Error Incorrect format parameter

Question

I am trying to import the production mysql db into a local xampp test environment. By connecting to web admin(mozff) and simple exporting sql(never needed anything else).And then go to local phpmyadmin dashboard and import. It is throwing the following errors

Error:

Live Environment:

Db-Server

Server: db01.l2.url.com via TCP/IP
Server-Typ: MariaDB
Server-Version: 10.1.26-MariaDB-0+deb9u1 - Debian 9.1
Protokoll-Version: 10
User: user
Server-encoding: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)

Webserver

Apache
Datenbank-Client Version: libmysql - mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: b5c5906d452ec590732a93b051f3827e02749b83 $
PHP-Erweiterung: mysqliDokumentation curlDokumentation mbstringDokumentation
PHP-Version: 7.0.27-0+deb9u1

phpMyAdmin

Version informationen: 4.6.6deb4 

Test Environment

DB-Server

Server: 127.0.0.1 via TCP/IP
Server-Typ: MariaDB
Server-connection: SSL not used
Server-Version: 10.1.33-MariaDB - mariadb.org binary distribution
Protokoll-Version: 10
user: root@localhost
Server-encoding: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)

Webserver

Apache/2.4.33 (Win32) OpenSSL/1.1.0h PHP/7.2.6
Datenbank-Client Version: libmysql - mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407 - $Id: 38fea24f2847fa7519001be390c98ae0acafe387 $
PHP-extension: mysqliDokumentation curlDokumentation mbstringDokumentation
PHP-Version: 7.2.6

phpMyAdmin

Version informationen: 4.8.1, aktuelle stabile Version: 4.8.2

Question:

1. Where do I see what parameter is incorrect?
2. I am assuming mysql 4.8.1 db is backwards compatible with 4.6.6deb4 ..??

what I have tried:

phpMyAdmin - Error > Incorrect format parameter?

xampp phpmyadmin, Incorrect format parameter

Logs:

180709 11:52:25   246 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
          247 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
          247 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
          247 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
          247 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
          246 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          246 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          247 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
          247 Init DB   mysql
          247 Query SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS'
180709 11:52:26   247 Quit  
          246 Quit  
180709 11:52:33   248 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
          249 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
          249 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
          249 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
          249 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
          248 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          249 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
          249 Query SELECT `SCHEMA_NAME` FROM `INFORMATION_SCHEMA`.`SCHEMATA`, (SELECT DB_first_level FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t ORDER BY DB_first_level ASC LIMIT 0, 100) t2 WHERE TRUE AND 1 = LOCATE(CONCAT(DB_first_level, '_'), CONCAT(SCHEMA_NAME, '_')) ORDER BY SCHEMA_NAME ASC
          248 Query SELECT `db_name`, COUNT(*) AS `count` FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__navigationhiding` WHERE `username`='root' GROUP BY `db_name`
          249 Query SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t
          249 Query SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t
          248 Query SELECT * FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__bookmark` WHERE ( `user` = '' OR `user` = 'root' ) ORDER BY label ASC
          249 Quit  
          248 Quit  
180709 11:52:51   250 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
          251 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
          251 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
          251 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
          251 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
          250 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          251 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
180709 11:52:52   251 Quit  
          250 Quit  
180709 11:52:53   252 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
          253 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
          253 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
          253 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
          253 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
          252 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          253 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
          253 Query SELECT `SCHEMA_NAME` FROM `INFORMATION_SCHEMA`.`SCHEMATA`, (SELECT DB_first_level FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t ORDER BY DB_first_level ASC LIMIT 0, 100) t2 WHERE TRUE AND 1 = LOCATE(CONCAT(DB_first_level, '_'), CONCAT(SCHEMA_NAME, '_')) ORDER BY SCHEMA_NAME ASC
          252 Query SELECT `db_name`, COUNT(*) AS `count` FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__navigationhiding` WHERE `username`='root' GROUP BY `db_name`
          253 Query SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t
          253 Query SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ( SELECT DISTINCT SUBSTRING_INDEX(SCHEMA_NAME, '_', 1) DB_first_level FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA WHERE TRUE ) t
180709 11:52:54   253 Quit  
          252 Quit  
          254 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
          255 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
          255 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
          255 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
          255 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
          254 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
          255 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
      254 Quit  
      256 Connect   pma@localhost as anonymous on 
      257 Connect   root@localhost as anonymous on 
      257 Query SELECT @@version, @@version_comment
      257 Query SET NAMES 'utf8mb4' COLLATE 'utf8mb4_general_ci'
      257 Query SET lc_messages = 'de_DE'
      256 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
      257 Query SET collation_connection = 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci'
      256 Query SELECT `config_data`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(`timevalue`) ts FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
      256 Query SELECT `username` FROM `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` WHERE `username` = 'root'
      256 Query UPDATE `phpmyadmin`.`pma__userconfig` SET `timevalue` = NOW(), `config_data` = '{\"lang\":\"de\",\"Console\\/Mode\":\"collapse\"}' WHERE `username` = 'root'

180709 11:52:58 257 Quit
256 Quit

Answer 1

I was facing the same issue and tried many things especially increasing the time limits in php.ini but nothing really worked. Finally I did the job my importing the sql file via command line:

mysql -u username -p databasename < /path/to/file.sql

In most cases the username would be just root. If you have same tables in both the old database and new database backup file, then you may get an error like this:

ERROR 1050 (42S01) at line 31: Table 'wp_commentmeta' already exists

In that case, drop (delete) existing database and then import the new file via the command stated above.