# Configuring phpMyAdmin

There are many configuration settings that can be used to customize the interface. Those settings are described in Configuration. There are several layers of the configuration.

The global settings can be configured in `config.inc.php` as described in Configuration. This is only way to configure connections to databases and other system wide settings.

On top of this there are user settings which can be persistently stored in phpMyAdmin configuration storage, possibly automatically configured through Zero configuration. If the phpMyAdmin configuration storage are not configured, the settings are temporarily stored in the session data; these are valid only until you logout.

You can also save the user configuration for further use, either download them as a file or to the browser local storage. You can find both those options in the Settings tab. The settings stored in browser local storage will be automatically offered for loading upon your login to phpMyAdmin.