[12.x] Fix stale in-memory SQLite connections after re-migration in RefreshDatabase

[PouyaPour]

Problem

When using the RefreshDatabase trait with SQLite in-memory databases, tests can fail with "General error: 1 no such table" errors in subsequent test runs after a PDO connection is detected as closed.

This occurs when:

1. A test uses database transactions across multiple connections (e.g., mysql and mysql_vandar)
2. One connection closes or ends its transaction
3. Laravel detects the connection is not in a transaction and sets RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated = false
4. The next test triggers re-migration, creating new PDO connections
5. However, RefreshDatabaseState::$inMemoryConnections still references the old, closed connections
6. Subsequent tests fail because they're using stale PDO instances without the migrated schema

Root Cause

In RefreshDatabase::refreshTestDatabase(), when RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated is false and migrations run again via migrateDatabases(), the method creates new database connections. However, the stored PDO references in RefreshDatabaseState::$inMemoryConnections are never updated to point to these new connections.

The check in RefreshDatabase::beginDatabaseTransaction():

if ($connection->getPdo() && ! $connection->getPdo()->inTransaction()) {
    RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated = false;
}

Correctly detects when migrations need to run again, but the re-migration process doesn't update the cached in-memory connection references.

Solution

Call updateInMemoryConnections() immediately after migrateDatabases() to ensure RefreshDatabaseState::$inMemoryConnections always references the current, valid PDO instances.

Changes

protected function refreshTestDatabase()
{
    if (! RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated) {
        $this->migrateDatabases();
        $this->app[Kernel::class]->setArtisan(null);
        $this->updateInMemoryConnections(); // Added this line
        RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated = true;
    }

    $this->beginDatabaseTransaction();
}

This ensures that after re-migration, all subsequent tests reference the correct in-memory database connections with the proper schema.

[taylorotwell]

Can you share a simple reproduction repository?

[PouyaPour]

Hi Taylor 👋

Sure! I’ve created a minimal reproduction repository showing the issue:
🔗 https://github.com/PouyaPour/laravel-refreshdatabase-sqlite-bug

Steps To reproduce:**

composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
php artisan test

Result: Tests 5 and 6 fail with SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1 no such table: users

Key insight: Test 4 passes, but tests 5-6 fail. This happens because:

1. Test 3 performs a rollback, setting RefreshDatabaseState::$migrated = false
2. Test 4 triggers re-migration, creating a NEW PDO connection with tables (test passes ✅)
3. After test 4, beginDatabaseTransaction() calls restoreInMemoryDatabase(), which restores the old, stale PDO from RefreshDatabaseState::$inMemoryConnections (because it was never updated).
4. Tests 5+ now use the old PDO without any tables (tests fail ❌)

The fix updates $inMemoryConnections after re-migration so restoreInMemoryDatabase() restores the correct PDO reference.

Full explanation in the README. Let me know if you need any clarification!

(And thank you for everything you do for Laravel)