MySQL Workbench Edit Table Data is read only

I'm assuming the table has a primary key. First try to run a unlock tables command to see if that fixes it.

If all else fails you can alter the table to create a new primary key column with auto-increment and that should hopefully fix it. Once you're done you should be able to remove the column without any issues.

As always you want to make a backup before altering tables around. :)

Note: MySQL workbench cannot work without a primary key if that's your issue. However if you have a many to many table you can set both columns as primary keys which will let you edit the data.

if the table does not have primary key or unique non-nullable defined, then MySql workbench could not able to edit the data.

If you set a default schema for your DB Connection then Select will run in readonly mode until you set explicitly your schema

USE mydb;
SELECT * FROM mytable

this will also run in edit mode:

SELECT * FROM mydb.mytable 

(MySql 5.2.42 / MacOsX)

I hope this helps.

This is the Known limitation in MySQLWorkbench (you can't edit table w/o PK):

To Edit the Table:

Method 1: (method not working in somecases)
right-click on a table within the Object Browser and choose the Edit Table Data option from there.

Method 2:
I would rather suggest you to add Primary Key Instead:

ALTER TABLE `your_table_name` ADD PRIMARY KEY (`column_name`);

and you might want to remove the existing rows first:

Truncate table your_table_name