Django application throws MySQL connection lost error on shared hosting - seeking solutions

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1

Hi folks,

I’m experiencing a persistent problem with my Django app deployed on shared hosting through cPanel. The site randomly displays HTTP 500 errors on various pages, and my error tracking shows this message:

Error Level: Critical
(2006, "MySQL server has gone away (ConnectionResetError(104, 'Connection reset by peer'))")

This occurs unpredictably across different sections of the website. I suspect it might be related to MySQL connection timeouts or some cPanel hosting limitations, but I’m not entirely certain.

Anyone encountered similar issues or have suggestions on what could be triggering this?

Here’s my database configuration:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'my_database',
        'USER': 'db_user',
        'PASSWORD': 'secret_pass',
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': '3306',
        'CONN_MAX_AGE': 600,
        'OPTIONS': {
            'charset': 'utf8mb4',
            'connect_timeout': 10,
            'init_command': "SET sql_mode='STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION'"
        }
    }
}

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2

I’ve dealt with this exact scenario on multiple shared hosting environments and the root cause is almost always connection pooling combined with aggressive timeout policies from the hosting provider. Your CONN_MAX_AGE setting of 600 seconds is likely too high for shared hosting where MySQL connections get terminated much more frequently than on dedicated servers.

Try reducing CONN_MAX_AGE to 60 or even 0 to disable connection reuse entirely. Also add ‘autocommit’: True to your OPTIONS dictionary. Shared hosting providers often implement stricter resource limits that aren’t documented, and keeping connections open for 10 minutes will trigger their automated cleanup processes.

Another approach that worked for me was implementing database connection retry logic in a custom middleware. The error you’re seeing typically happens when Django tries to reuse a connection that the MySQL server already closed, so forcing fresh connections resolves it at the cost of slightly higher latency.

3

Your configuration looks fine except for one detail that often causes this issue on shared hosting. The connect_timeout parameter only controls the initial connection attempt, but doesn’t handle what happens when the server drops idle connections during runtime. I had the same problem on my company’s shared hosting setup and discovered that most providers silently kill MySQL connections after 60-120 seconds regardless of your CONN_MAX_AGE setting. What fixed it for me was adding connection validation to prevent Django from attempting to use stale connections. Add ‘init_command’: “SET SESSION wait_timeout=28800, interactive_timeout=28800” to your OPTIONS, though this might not work if your host restricts session variables. The more reliable solution is implementing a database wrapper that catches the 2006 error and automatically reconnects. This approach handles the connection drops gracefully without exposing 500 errors to users.