PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library

It means there is an extension=... or zend_extension=... line in one of your php configuration files (php.ini, or another close to it) that is trying to load that extension : ixed.5.2.lin

Unfortunately that file or path doesn't exist or the permissions are incorrect.

1. Try to search in the .ini files that are loaded by PHP (phpinfo() can indicate which ones are) - one of them should try to load that extension.
2. Either correct the path to the file or comment out the corresponding line.

If you're on Linux, you can find all loaded configuration files by typing this in shell:

php -r "print phpinfo();" | grep ".ini"

UPDATE: As mentioned in comments, this can be even more accurate:

php -i | grep ini

phpStom with XAMPP

TL;DR Except from verifying that the files exist, you might need to add the drive letter to some records in your php.ini file

I suddenly started having a problem using phpStorm 7 for debugging php with xampp and xdebug. When trying to set intellij interperter to be xampps php I got a lot of the warnings like the one in the question, for example:

Unable to load dynamic library '/xampp/php/ext/php_bz2.dll'

For some reason I had to add my drive letter to the records of extension_dir and browscap in the php.ini file:

extension_dir = "\xampp\php\ext"
browscap = "\xampp\php\extras\browscap.ini"

to

extension_dir = "e:\xampp\php\ext"
browscap = "e:\xampp\php\extras\browscap.ini"

If you just want to make the error disappear, and you don't need the extension, then by all means comment the line out in php.ini. But if you actually want to fix the problem here is some additional info.

There are various causes for this based on the exact module, but there are also some general guidelines.

1. Open phpinfo() and look for extension_dir under the Core section. This is where your modules should be located.

For instance, /usr/lib/php/modules for Unix/Linux.

2. If the file does in fact exist, make sure permissions are adequate.
3. If the file does not exist, use the resources below to install it.

Installation on *nix (PEAR)
Installation of extensions on Windows

Loading .dll in Linux

I've encountered this warning message while I was trying to install a php-extension via the php.ini file;

until I figured out that you cannot load .dll extensions in Linux,

but you have to comment the extensions that you want to import ;extension= ... .dll and install it correctly via sudo apt-get install php-...

note: ... is the extension name you want to enable.

php -r "echo php_ini_loaded_file();"

Will show in CLI current ini loaded file, search there for Your extension, path to it is incorrect.

In my case, this message started to appear when I updated the php version to 7.4.

To solve it I had to look for the php.ini files found inside the php version folder (/etc/php/7.4/apache2/ && /etc/php/7.4/cli/) checking the lines where the extensions I could see that the extensions gd2 and intl were uncommented.

I had this error on a number of modules when I had been running different versions of PHP side by side on my server. To sort this out, I needed to install the packages it couldn't find for that specific PHP version. So, for example, if I saw:-

PHP Warning:  PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library '/usr/lib/php/20160303/xml.so'

I would install the library for the PHP version specifically:-

sudo apt-get install php7.1-xml

And then restart Apache. Fixed it for me. You can check your version like this:-

php -v

Note that you can also get this error if your PHP library doesn't have the "other" directory opening permission. In my particular case, I noticed this when using php -l to syntax check a script in my text editor. This meant that since my account was called "volomike", that account didn't have permission to run the libraries that the php command relied upon.

For instance, on Ubuntu 14.04, I had PHP5 installed automatically into the path /usr/lib/php5/20121212+lfs. However, because I was working in C++ in building some shared objects, I messed around with the directory permissions and screwed things up such that non-root accounts did not have the directory execute (directory open) permissions to view /usr/lib/php5/20121212+lfs. So, I typed the following command to rectify that problem:

sudo chmod o+x /usr/lib/php5/20121212+lfs.

Now when I do php -l example.php as a non-root user, it never gives me this "Unabled to load dynamic library" problem anymore.

I had the same problem on XAMPP for Windows when I try to install composer. I did php -v and php throwing error :

Unable to load dynamic library '/xampp/php/ext/php_bz2.dll'

It took me a while until I realized that I need to setup my XAMPP. So I run setup_xampp.bat and php return to works like a charm.

I had the same problem on XAMPP for Windows10 when I try to install composer.

Unable to load dynamic library '/xampp/php/ext/php_bz2.dll'

Then follow this steps

1. just open your current_xampp_containing_drive:\xampp(default_xampp_folder)\php\php.ini in texteditor (like notepad++)
2. now just find - is the current_xampp_containing_drive:\xampp exist?
3. if not then find the "extension_dir" and get the drive name(c,d or your desired drive) like.

extension_dir="F:\xampp731\php\ext" (here finded_drive_name_from_the_file is F)

4. again replace with finded_drive_name_from_the_file:\xampp with current_xampp_containing_drive:\xampp and save.
5. now again start the composer installation progress, i think your problem will be solved.

What I did was;

1 - I first find out what version of PHP I am using thru the function phpinfo()

<?php   
    phpinfo();
?>

2 - From there you will find the location of your configuration(php.ini) file

3 - Open that file

4 - Comment out the line similar to the image below

This might be a different value but it should be related to extension. I am no expert but this process helped me solved similar problem.

In my case I got this error because I downloaded a thread-safe version of the dll (infixed with -ts-), but my installation of php was a non-thread-safe (infixed with -nts-). Downloading the right version of the dll, exactly matching my php installation version fixed the issue.

After Windows 10 XAMPP now I installed LAMPP (XAMPP) on Ubuntu. Windows XAMPP had a lot less to configure compare to MAC (iOS) but now with Linux Ubuntu I had a few more since there are more going in Linux (a good thing).

I confused and activated mysqli.dll (and mysql.dll: erase "#" in /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.ini

I started to get the PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library message related to dll. I commented out mysql(and i).dll in the same file but the message didn't go away up until I commented out " " in /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini.

Looks like XAMPP reads php.ini file from /etc/php/7.2/cli and makes modification in php.ini of /opt/lampp/etc. (;extension=php_pdo_mysql.dll after ";" restarted Apache and no more any message.

Uncomment extension_dir = "ext" in php.ini worked for me. I am using Windows

From C:\xampp\php\php.exe I got

• Unable to load dynamic library ''
  
• C:\xampp\php\ext\php_.dll (The specified module could not be found.)

I solved by commenting out
C:\xampp\php\php.ini
;extension=

I had the same problem when I tried to use php with sql server, when I added the sqlsrv libraries ... it gave me the error, after several days of researching there, I understood that microsoft does not support x64 in this case so what I did was install laragon x86 and use the corresponding libraries. I hope it helps with something

Go to system env variable and set the php ext dir path as

C:\xampp\php\ext

basically it's finding the ext directory and then locating it's file but it's unable to find the files becuase php path is set as different.

Look at the architecture (arm64, amd64, ...) !

I ran into this problem with pdflib for php in lando (docker DEBIAN 11) on macOS.

The problem was that my copy of php_pdflib.so was packaged for linux/amd64 but in docker I was running Debain arm64 version.

So thew solution is to use the right package for the right architecture :)

On Debian(-based) linux you can find out your architect with

dpkg --print-architecture

Also you can analyze your shared object (.so-file) with:

ldd

The steps I followed to resolve this Unable to load dynamic library warning issue:

1. Copy all *.dll files: to c:\xampp\php
2. Copy all *.dll files to c:\xampp\apache\bin (We need a second copy here for apache)

Thats it !! After adding the .dll files to my root php and apache, the warning was resolved.

N.B. Ensure the XAMPP path as per the installation directory. And don't forget to restart the server.