Executing PHP file with crontab - php

Question

Hello I want executing a php file with crontab. This PHP file makes an update of the MySQL database and when I enter the URL in the browser I can execute the file but not as cronjob.
I add
*/5 * * * * php -f /var/www/html/.../update.php >/dev/null 2>&1
to the crontab, and other cronjobs are working well (3rd part extensions).
Do I need to add some code in my PHP file? Thank you.
Here whats inside the PHP file
<?php
$servername = "";
$username = "";
$password = "";
$dbname = "";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
$sql = "UPDATE pm_videos SET `description` = REPLACE( `description` ,'Instagram:', '')";
if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
echo "Record updated successfully with Facebook, ";
} else {
echo "Error updating record: " . $conn->error;
}
$sql = "UPDATE pm_videos SET `description` = REPLACE( `description` ,'Facebook:', '')";
if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
echo "Record updated successfully with Facebook, ";
} else {
echo "Error updating record: " . $conn->error;
}
$conn->close();

Answer 1

Typically, this is caused by a $PATH issue. Try adding this as the first line of your crontab via crontab -u root -e:
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
If this doesn't fix it, you'll need to look in your code for places where you might be calling external commands, or depending on the values of environment variables. If this doesn't work, please edit your post and show the contents of update.php.