The error returned was access denied for user

Oops!! Frustrated with ‘Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ (using password yes) in MySQL?

This error may occur due to many reasons which include insufficient privileges for the user to access the database, and when MySQL root password is wrong and so on.

At Bobcares, we often get requests to fix MySQL errors, as a part of our Server Management Services.

Today, let’s see how our Support Engineers fix this MySQL for our customers.

Why does access denied error occurs in MySQL?

This error may occur due to different reasons in different scenarios. Some of them are:

• When a user who doesn’t exist on the MySQL server tries to access the database.
• When there is no privilege for the user.
• If the username or password is wrong.

Today, we’ll discuss in detail how we fix this Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ (using password yes) in MySQL.

How we fix ‘access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ (using password yes) in MySQL’?

Let’s see, how we fix this access denied error for our customers in detail.

a. Not able to login

Recently, one of our customers approached us saying that he is getting an error like the one shown below while he is trying to log in to MySQL.

So, our Support Engineers checked in detail and found that the root password is wrong. So, to reset the password we did the following:

1. Initially, we opened /etc/mysql/my.cnf

2. Then we added skip-grant-tables under [mysqld] section.

Here we skipped grant tables as there is no other way to log in.

By skipping the grant table option it allows anyone to log in from anywhere and can do anything on the database.

Note: skip-grant-tables is dangerous, so we will remove this at the end.

3 Then, we restarted the MySQL service using the command below:

service mysql restart

Now MySQL is configured to skip the grant-tables. So, we can log in now.

4. We logged into MySQL using:

mysql -u root 

5. Then, we flushed the privileges using:

6. After that, we set a new password using the command below: UPDATE user SET

Password=PASSWORD('my_password') where USER='root';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

7. Then, we removed skip-grant-tables from /etc/mysql/my.cnf

8. Finally, we restarted the MySQL service and logged in to MySQL using the new password.

This fixes the error.

b. No global privilege

If there is no global privilege then this error can happen. In such cases, our Engineers add the privilege by:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database.* TO 'user'@'localhost';

This fixes the error.

[Need more assistance to fix MySQL Error?- We’re available 24/7.]

Conclusion

In short, this error occurs mainly due to insufficient privileges to the user and can be fixed by granting the privilege. Also, today we discussed in detail how our Support Engineers fix this error for our customers.

var google_conversion_label = «owonCMyG5nEQ0aD71QM»;

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.