title: Getting Error on Joomla: Failed to Read Session Data and Application Instantiation Error
body: <p>I am trying to run my Joomla website on localhost but getting following error:</p>
  
  <p><strong>Warning: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: C:\xampp\tmp) in C:\xampp\htdocs\Joomla_3\libraries\joomla\session\handler\native.php on line 258
  Error displaying the error page: Application Instantiation Error: Failed to start the session</strong></p>
  
  <p>I have tried to find the solution over Internet and made some changes on "configuration.php" file but still same error is coming again and again:
  here is my config. file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>    &lt;?php
  class JConfig {
      public $MetaAuthor = '1';
      public $MetaDesc = '';
      public $MetaKeys = '';
      public $MetaRights = '';
      public $MetaTitle = '1';
      public $MetaVersion = '0';
      public $access = '1';
      public $cache_handler = 'file';
      public $cachetime = '15';
      public $caching = '0';
      public $captcha = '0';
      public $cookie_domain = '';
      public $cookie_path = '';
      public $db = 'websitedb';
      public $dbprefix = 'entdc1_';
      public $dbtype = 'mysqli';
      public $debug = '0';
      public $debug_lang = '0';
      public $display_offline_message = '1';
      public $editor = 'tinymce';
      public $error_reporting = 'default';
      public $feed_email = 'none';
      public $feed_limit = '10';
      public $force_ssl = '0';
      public $fromname = 'Wireless-site';
      public $ftp_enable = '1';
      public $ftp_host = '';
      public $ftp_pass = '';
      public $ftp_port = '21';
      public $ftp_root = '';
      public $ftp_user = '';
      public $gzip = '1';
      public $helpurl = 'https://help.joomla.org/proxy/index.php?option=com_help&amp;keyref=Help{major}{minor}:{keyref}';
      public $host = 'localhost';
      public $lifetime = '15';
      public $list_limit = '20';
      public $live_site = '';
      public $log_path = '/xampp/htdocs/Joomla_3/log';
      public $mailer = 'mail';
      public $mailfrom = 'switching-website-feedback@cisco.com';
      public $memcache_compress = '0';
      public $memcache_persist = '1';
      public $memcache_server_host = 'localhost';
      public $memcache_server_port = '11211';
      public $offline = '0';
      public $offline_image = '';
      public $offline_message = 'This site is down for maintenance.&lt;br /&gt;Please check back again soon.';
      public $offset = 'UTC';
      public $offset_user = 'UTC';
      public $password = 'admin';
      public $robots = '';
      public $secret = 'HHuagoT8gBoxPG7oyUoXmBD6hnq9oU2P';
      public $sef = '1';
      public $sef_rewrite = '1';
      public $sef_suffix = '0';
      public $sendmail = '/usr/sbin/sendmail';
      public $session_handler = 'database';
      public $sitename = 'Wireless-site';
      public $sitename_pagetitles = '0';
      public $smtpauth = '0';
      public $smtphost = 'localhost';
      public $smtppass = 'Nirvana001';
      public $smtpport = '25';
      public $smtpsecure = 'none';
      public $smtpuser = 'dsrivastava';
      public $tmp_path = '/xampp/htdocs/Joomla_3/tmp';
      public $unicodeslugs = '1';
      public $user = 'admin';
      public $mailonline = '1';
      public $cache_platformprefix = '0';
      public $memcached_persist = '1';
      public $memcached_compress = '0';
      public $memcached_server_host = 'localhost';
      public $memcached_server_port = '11211';
      public $redis_persist = '1';
      public $redis_server_host = 'localhost';
      public $redis_server_port = '6379';
      public $redis_server_auth = '';
      public $redis_server_db = '0';
      public $proxy_enable = '0';
      public $proxy_host = '';
      public $proxy_port = '';
      public $proxy_user = '';
      public $proxy_pass = '';
      public $massmailoff = '0';
      public $session_memcache_server_host = 'localhost';
      public $session_memcache_server_port = '11211';
      public $session_memcached_server_host = 'localhost';
      public $session_memcached_server_port = '11211';
      public $frontediting = '1';
      public $asset_id = '1';
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>here is the index.php file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
      define('JOOMLA_MINIMUM_PHP', '5.3.10');
  
  if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, JOOMLA_MINIMUM_PHP, '&lt;'))
  {
      die('Your host needs to use PHP ' . JOOMLA_MINIMUM_PHP . ' or higher to run this version of Joomla!');
  }
  
  // Saves the start time and memory usage.
  $startTime = microtime(1);
  $startMem  = memory_get_usage();
  
  /**
   * Constant that is checked in included files to prevent direct access.
   * define() is used in the installation folder rather than "const" to not error for PHP 5.2 and lower
   */
  define('_JEXEC', 1);
  
  if (file_exists(__DIR__ . '/defines.php'))
  {
      include_once __DIR__ . '/defines.php';
  }
  
  if (!defined('_JDEFINES'))
  {
      define('JPATH_BASE', __DIR__);
      require_once JPATH_BASE . '/includes/defines.php';
  }
  
  require_once JPATH_BASE . '/includes/framework.php';
  
  // Set profiler start time and memory usage and mark afterLoad in the profiler.
  JDEBUG ? $_PROFILER-&gt;setStart($startTime, $startMem)-&gt;mark('afterLoad') : null;
  
  // Instantiate the application.
  $app = JFactory::getApplication('site');
  
  // Execute the application.
  $app-&gt;execute();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to know the reason why my website is not running on localhost?
  thanks for help.</p>