PHP Fatal Error - $wpdb a non-object?

Question

I'm getting many Fatal errors like this in Wordpress 3.6.1, multisite with Buddypress:

PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function suppress_errors() on a non-object in /myblog/wproot/wp-includes/option.php on line 143

The non-object referred to is the global value $wpdb, in the line:

$suppress = $wpdb->suppress_errors();

which is in the function wp_load_alloptions()

Any ideas why $wpdb would not be set, and if there is anything to be done to remedy this? Sorry I don't have any more useful on this, the errors are isolated and don't show a stack trace.

Answer 1

"the errors (…) don't show a stack trace" - they would if you were using xdebug.

It means $wpdb is not loaded yet, not loaded properly, or gone:

• If you added code that calls it to your wp-config file or something to that order, remove it.
• If you've a db.php file in wp-content, it's probably broken so rename it.
• If you're messing around with things on a shutdown handler, do them earlier on the shutdown hook instead.