Try to reset the root user’s access. Run via command.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO root@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ' your current password ' WITH GRANT 

Is that after logging in to MariaDB on the command line?

In the end I did a database dump, uninstalled MariaDB, cleared out all the data stores for the tables, and then reinstalled MariaDB, and imported the databases.

I then exported each database individually, and created a new user/database for each database using the MariaDB root account on phpMyAdmin. Once I had gone through all the databases and successfully reimported each the them and made sure that each one was working correctly, I took a DO snapshot of the server.

However once the server came back online, that was when the MariaDB root user stops being able to login through phpMyAdmin. I can still login to MariaDB using the commandline, but not through phpMyAdmin.

I even attempted to run the above command, but I still cannot login to MariaDB using root on phpMyAdmin.

Further thoughts?