Symptoms
The following error is received during WHM backups:
The backup process encountered the following error: The backup process on “hostname.domain.tld” encountered an error.
[2025-12-10 02:25:26 -0600] mysqldump: Got error: 1049: Unknown database ‘example_database’ when selecting the database
Cause
This error most often indicates that the related database is present in a cPanel user's database map but does not exist in MySQL.
Resolution
-
Check if the database exists in MySQL. Run the following command to do so:
mysql -e "show databases;" | grep example_database
Note: Replace "example_database" in the above command with the database listed in the backup error in the backup logs.
- If the above command returns no results, it indicates that the database does not exist in MySQL. Move on to step 3 if this is the case.
- Navigate to the user's cPanel account and open the Databases / Manage My Databases menu.
- Delete the database that only exists in cPanel, but does not exist within MySQL.
