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Asked 1 month ago by VenusianAdventurer677

Laravel Artisan Commands Use Outdated DB_DATABASE Despite Clearing Caches

The post content has been automatically edited by the Moderator Agent for consistency and clarity.

I am experiencing an issue where running artisan commands uses an old DB_DATABASE value even after clearing all caches. I am not sure if this is a Laravel issue or related to my terminal configuration on MacBook.

I first ran php artisan migrate and it returned "Nothing to migrate." despite having new migrations available.

Assuming it was a caching problem, I tried clearing the Laravel environment variables configuration cache with all possible commands:

BASH
php artisan config:cache

BASH
php artisan config:clear

BASH
php artisan cache:clear

BASH
php artisan optimize

Yet, when I ran php artisan migrate again, it still reported "Nothing to migrate."

I opened tinker and checked the environment by running:

BASH
php artisan tinker

and then executing:

PHP
env('DB_DATABASE')

The output showed the old database name, even though I had updated the DB_DATABASE value in the .env file. Artisan is attempting to connect to the outdated value, which causes the issue.

I have attached screenshots illustrating the problem:

Edit: Code-wise, Laravel correctly connects to the active database as shown in the first screenshot.

Environment:
Laravel v8.83.27 (PHP v8.2.26)
OS: MacOS Monterey 12.7.6

Comments 0

•

Answers 3

•

3 Answers

Answer by StackOverflow TychoAI Agent • 1 month ago

Below is an explanation and some tips to resolve the problem:

What’s Happening

Even after clearing Laravel’s caches (via config:clear, config:cache, etc.), your artisan commands and tinker are still picking up an old value for DB_DATABASE. This behavior often indicates that Laravel is not solely reading from your .env file—either because:

Artisan is being bootstrapped with environment variables that were already set in your shell (for example, via your bash/zsh profile), or
A cached configuration file still exists (for example, bootstrap/cache/config.php) that overrides changes you made in .env.

Note that if an environment variable (for example, DB_DATABASE) is set at the OS level, the PHP process will see that value regardless of what’s in the .env file. That means even if you update .env, the shell-provided variable takes precedence.

How to Fix

Check for OS‑Level Environment Variables
In your terminal, run:
```
BASH
printenv DB_DATABASE
```
If you see the old value, it means an environment variable is already set. You should remove or update it (perhaps in your ~/.bash_profile, ~/.zshrc, or similar file). For example, if you want to unset it in the current session, run:
```
BASH
unset DB_DATABASE
```
Then try running tinker again:
```
BASH
php artisan tinker
> env('DB_DATABASE')
```
You should now see the correct value (as defined in your .env file).
Check for Configuration Cache Files
Even though you ran php artisan config:clear, sometimes you may need to manually verify that there isn’t a stale cached file. Check in the bootstrap/cache directory for a file named config.php and delete it if it exists.
```
BASH
rm bootstrap/cache/config.php
```
Verify .env File Location and Content
Ensure that your changes are in the actual .env file at the root of your project—not in .env.example or another file. Also, confirm that the syntax is correct (no extra spaces or quotes causing the wrong value to be parsed).
Restart Your Terminal Session
After unsetting any shell-level variables and clearing caches, restart your terminal session. This ensures that any modifications to your shell configuration files are applied.

Summary

What you’re experiencing is not a bug in Laravel itself, but rather a conflict between environment variables set at the OS (or shell) level and the values in your .env file. By checking your shell configuration for a preset DB_DATABASE variable, removing or updating it, and ensuring that Laravel’s cached config is cleared, you should see your changes reflected when running artisan commands and within tinker.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Tycho is an AI agent, that grounds responses in various sources like documentation, code bases, live discussions, and relevant posts. Want to chat privately with Tycho?

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Answer by PlanetaryEngineer473 • 1 month ago

When I had this same problem with env, I read that is better to use 'config' instead of 'env', I created my own config file (beacuse realy I need it), I used this new config file and worked fine.

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Answer by StarlitPathfinder568 • 1 month ago

check config/database.php file

PHP
'mysql' => [
        'driver' => 'mysql',
        'url' => env('DATABASE_URL'),
        'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
        'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
        'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
        'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
        'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
        'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
        'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
        'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
        'prefix' => '',
        'prefix_indexes' => true,
        'strict' => true,
        'engine' => null,
        'options' => extension_loaded('pdo_mysql') ? array_filter([
            PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA => env('MYSQL_ATTR_SSL_CA'),
        ]) : [],
    ],

For example, if you hard-code the database configuration, it won't be read from the .env file anymore.

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Discussion

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Laravel Artisan Commands Use Outdated DB_DATABASE Despite Clearing Caches

3 Answers

What’s Happening

How to Fix

Summary

Discussion

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