mysql how to fix Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

Question

Before I screw up something, when I login using $ mysql -u root -p, and show databases:

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
| game_data          |
| test               |
+--------------------+

Then I tried to create a new user and notice something is wrong with the PRIVILEGES.

So I deleted the new users, and I guess I removed the 'root' and 'Admin' accidentally.

Then I try to create 'root' again, but get Access denied error when doing grant all privileges.

mysql> CREATE USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
mysql> grant all privileges on *.* to 'root'@'localhost' identified by 'password' with grant option;
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

If I login to MySQL again using $ mysql -u root -p, and show databases,

+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
+--------------------+

All the other databases are gone.

How do I fix MySQL now?

I cannot find the database 'mysql', cannot create database, create user, anything I try to do will get an error.

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES).

Should I reinstall MySQL using MacPorts? If reinstall, I will lose the database game_data, right?

score 152 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 26 '22 at 08:42

Follow the steps below.

Start the MySQL server instance or daemon with the --skip-grant-tables option (security setting).
```
 $ sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables
```

Execute these statements.

 $ sudo mysql -u root mysql
 $mysql> UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('my_password') where USER='root';
 $mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

If you face the unknown field Password error above use:

update user set authentication_string=password('my_password') where user='root';

Finally, restart the instance/daemon without the --skip-grant-tables option.
```
 $ /etc/init.d/mysql restart
```

You should now be able to connect with your new password.

$ sudo mysql -u root -p

Enter password: my_password

Fix for MySQL “Unable to lock ibdata1” error

sudo mv /usr/local/mysql/data/ibdata1 /usr/local/mysql/data/ibdata1.bak
sudo mv /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile0 /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile0.bak
sudo mv /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile1 /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile1.bak
sudo cp -a /usr/local/mysql/data/ibdata1.bak /usr/local/mysql/data/ibdata1
sudo cp -a /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile0.bak /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile0
sudo cp -a /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile1.bak /usr/local/mysql/data/ib_logfile1
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart

score 90 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 19 '18 at 10:10

None of the above were helpful for me. I found I needed to clear the plugin method. In 5.6, I could do:

sudo mysql -u root
use mysql;
[mysql] update user set plugin='' where User='root';
[mysql] flush privileges;

In 5.7, I found I needed to:

sudo mysql -u root
use mysql;
[mysql] update user set plugin='mysql_native_password' where User='root';
[mysql] flush privileges;

According to the docs, with plugin set to an empty string, it should have effectively defaulted to mysql_native_password, but may be getting confused by an empty password hash. For more nuance, you can read the documentation here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/native-authentication-plugin.html

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 28 '16 at 21:27

Also make sure needed record in table user has empty plugin field (there can be, for example, "unix_socket").

Since version 5.5.7 mysql has various auth plugins support https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/authentication-plugins.html

So if you have non-empty plugin field then password would be ignored and there would be warning at mysql error log (for me it's /var/log/mysql/error.log):

[Warning] 'user' entry 'root@localhost' has both a password and an authentication plugin specified. The password will be ignored.

score 7 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 22 '17 at 13:01

grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log
Sort date (newest date)

You may see something like this;

[root@SERVER ~]# grep 'temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log
2016-01-16T18:07:29.688164Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: O,k5.marHfFu
2016-01-22T13:14:17.974391Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: b5nvIu!jh6ql
2016-01-22T15:35:48.496812Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: (B*=T!uWJ7ws
2016-01-22T15:52:21.088610Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: %tJXK7sytMJV
2016-01-22T16:24:41.384205Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: lslQDvgwr3/S
2016-01-22T22:11:24.772275Z 1 [Note] A temporary password is generated for root@localhost: S4u+J,Rce_0t
[root@SERVER ~]# mysql_secure_installation

Securing the MySQL server deployment.

Enter password for user root: 

The existing password for the user account root has expired. Please set a new password.

New password: 

Re-enter new password:

If you see it says

... Failed! Error: Your password does not satisfy the current policy requirements
That means your password needs to have a character such as ! . # - etc...
mix characters well, upper case, lower case, ! . , # etc...

New password: 

Re-enter new password: 
The 'validate_password' plugin is installed on the server.
The subsequent steps will run with the existing configuration
of the plugin.
Using existing password for root.

Estimated strength of the password: 100 
Change the password for root ? ((Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y

New password: 

Re-enter new password: 

Estimated strength of the password: 100 
Do you wish to continue with the password provided?(Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user,
allowing anyone to log into MySQL without having to have
a user account created for them. This is intended only for
testing, and to make the installation go a bit smoother.
You should remove them before moving into a production
environment.

Remove anonymous users? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
Success.


Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from
'localhost'. This ensures that someone cannot guess at
the root password from the network.

Disallow root login remotely? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
Success.

By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that
anyone can access. This is also intended only for testing,
and should be removed before moving into a production
environment.


Remove test database and access to it? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
 - Dropping test database...
Success.

 - Removing privileges on test database...
Success.

Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes
made so far will take effect immediately.

Reload privilege tables now? (Press y|Y for Yes, any other key for No) : Y
Success.

All done! 
[root@SERVER ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 11
Server version: 5.7.10 MySQL Community Server (GPL)

Watch the last 10 minutes of this video, it teaches you how you do it.

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 21 '14 at 17:16

3

Try it:

mysql --no-defaults --force --user=root --host=localhost --database=mysql 
UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('NEWPASSWORD') where USER='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

edited Feb 21 '14 at 17:16

Canadian Luke

24,640

answered Feb 21 '14 at 17:05

Gustavo Duarte

39

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 20:13

In my case I had a database corruption, after restarting mysql on Debian the root login was without password. The solution was this :

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'test';

Some other answers also have mentioned the native_password plugin but this is how you can do it without complicated fiddling around. That's how it is meant to be changed.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 17 '20 at 12:46

The official documentation proposed something different:

First, create an SQL file setting the new password like this:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'MyNewPass';

Then start mysqld with the --init-file parameter, for example:

mysqld --init-file=/home/me/mysql-init &

Do not forget to kill the newly started mysqld server after verifying the new password was set.

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered May 28 '25 at 16:51

0

My problem is 3306 port is used by another application here is WSLRelay.

Check with netstat whether port is used or not.

Stop app used 3306 then restart mysqld.

answered May 28 '25 at 16:51

Hakan

181

mysql how to fix Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

8 Answers8

Fix for MySQL “Unable to lock ibdata1” error

Linked