Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket homebrew

I recently tried installing MySQL with homebrew (brew install mysql) and when I try to run it I get the following error:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

There is no /tmp/mysql.sock nor a /var/lib/mysql.sock.

I've searched and haven't found any mysql.sock file.

How can I fix this?

When you got the server running via

mysql.server start

you should see the socket in /tmp/mysql.sock. However, the system seems to expect it in /var/mysql/mysql.sock. To fix this, you have to create a symlink in /var/mysql:

sudo mkdir /var/mysql

sudo ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

This solved it for me. Now my phpMyAdmin works happily with localhost and 127.0.0.1.

Credit goes to Henry

I had some directories left from another mysql(8.0) installation, that were not removed.

I solved this by doing the following:

First uninstall mysql

brew uninstall [email protected]

Delete the folders/files that were not removed

rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql
rm /usr/local/etc/my.cnf

Reinstall mysql and link it

brew install [email protected]
brew link --force [email protected]

Enable and start the service

brew services start [email protected]

Looks like your mysql server is not started. I usually run the stop command and then start it again:

mysqld stop
mysql.server start

Same error, and this works for me.

Try to connect using "127.0.0.1" instead "localhost".

1. If you are able to see "mysql stopped" when you run below command;

   brew services list
   

2. and if you are able to start mysql with below command;

   mysql server start
   

this means; mysql is able to start manually, but it doesn't start automatically when the operating system is started. Adding mysql to services will fix this problem. To do so, you can run below command;

brew services start mysql

After that, you may restart your operating system and try connecting to mysql to see if it started automatically. I did the same and stop receiving below error;

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

I hope this helps.