Remote access for MySQL TCP/IP connections on cPanel

For any application using TCP/IP to connect to a MySQL database on a shared hosting account, the IP address must be whitelisted in the cPanel Remote MySQL tool. This includes connections using the local loopback address (127.0.0.1), which cPanel also treats as a remote connection.

Make sure you specify 127.0.0.1 in the cPanel Remote MySQL tool. Specifying localhost does not work.

For step-by-step instructions on how to configure remote MySQL access in cPanel, please see this article.