What does the error message "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client" in PHPMyAdmin indicate?

The error message "Client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading MySQL client" indicates that the MySQL client library being used by PHP does not support the authentication protocol required by the MySQL server. To solve this issue, you can update the authentication plugin for the user in the MySQL database to use a compatible authentication method such as 'mysql_native_password'. 

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Update the authentication plugin for the user
$conn->query("ALTER USER 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password'");

if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
echo "Connected successfully";
$conn->close();
?>

Keywords

PHPMyAdmin error message MySQL client authentication protocol upgrading

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