Apache is downloading php files instead of displaying them

The correct AddType for php is application/x-httpd-php

AddType  application/x-httpd-php         .phpAddType  application/x-httpd-php-source  .phps

Also make sure your php module is loaded

LoadModule php5_module        modules/mod_php55.so

When you're configuring apache then try to view the page from another browser - I've had days when chrome stubbornly caches the result and it keeps downloading the source code while in another browser it's just fine.

I came across this issue today and none of the solutions described worked for me. So here is another possible cause:

If you have something like

AddHandler x-mapp-php6 .php3 .php4 .php .phtml

in a .htaccess file of your web content folder, it can cause your PHP scripts to stop working. In my case the server did not know the x-mapp-php6 type, since that .htaccess file was something I imported from a different web host when I transferred the website content.

Just removing the AddHandler line from the .htaccess file solved it for me.

After struggling a lot I finally solved the problem.

If you are prompted to download a .php file instead of executing it, then here is the perfect solution: I assume that you have installed PHP5 already and still getting this error.

$ sudo su$ a2enmod php5

This is it.

But If you are still getting the error :

Config file php5.conf not properly enabled: /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf is a real file, not touching it

then do the following:

Turns out files shouldn't be stored in mods-enabled, but should rather be stored in mods-available. A symlink should then be created in mods-enabled pointing to the file stored in mods-available.

First remove the original:

$ mv /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf /etc/apache2/mods-available/

Then create the symbolic link:

$ ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.conf /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/php5.conf

I hope your problem is solved.