1. Using your web browser, browse to the PHPMyAdmin location of the server where the database you wish to import resides. For example: http://www.example.com/phpmyadmin/ for a remote database and http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ for a database hosted on your Apache2 installation.
2. Here you will either need to select an existing database name in the combo box on the left side of the PHPMyAdmin page, or create a new one. Note that if you are setting up a database on a remotely hosted site, your host may have prohibitions on the creation of MySQL databases that require they be created outside of PHPMyAdmin by means of a control panel or other mechanism; check with your web hosting service for specific details of their requirements.
3. Once you have selected or created the appropriate database name, select the tab labeled "Import" on the PHPMyAdmin page to be taken to the import page.
4. Find the control group in the Import page form labeled "Location of the text file" and click the button labeled "Browse", following the resulting dialogs to select the database file of your choice.

IMPORTANT

If you are importing a database that you exported using the instructions in this tutorial, remember, the tables of the imported database will overwrite any that exist in the database you are importing to, overwriting them. Therefore it is important to double-check that the database you are selecting and the target you are importing to are correct before proceeding. If uncertain, you should back up the target database before importing a new one into it.

5. Click the button labeled "Go" to import your new database.

Known issue for PhpMyAdmin GUI

PHPMyAdmin has a known issue for importing a large size database. You need to use the command line tool to import a large database.

What to do if import fails - Alternate command-line import

If the import fails (maybe because of charset differences, or because it was exported using MySQLDump), you can try to import it via the command line:

1. SSH to the source unix machine and run the following command :
   mysqldump -u sourceDbUser -pPassword sourceDbName > db.dmp
2. Open a CMD command-line window on the target Windows machine and run the following command:
   mysql -u root -pYourApache2TriadRootPassword newDbName < db.dmp

mysqldump export to phpMyAdmin import - error

phpMyAdmin can have trouble processing the conditional comment lines of mysqldump. If you export your database using mysqldump you may receive the following error upon import:

-- MySQL dump 10.10
--
-- Host: localhost Database: databaseNameHere
-- ------------------------------------------------------
-- Server version 5.0.19-log
/*!40101 SET @OLD_CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=@@CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT */;

MySQL said: Documentation
#1065 - Query was empty

Then try this mysqldump command:

mysqldump -uroot -proot --compact --quick databaseNameHere > databaseNameHere.sql

This is useful for making hourly backups of your database via crontab which can be imported by your developers via phpMyAdmin.