Warning the user/local/mysql/data directory is not owned by the mysql user

If you can't start mysql service in snow leopard, and in the panel prefs appears 'warning the user/local/mysql/data directory is not owned by the mysql user', you have to:

• sudo chown -RL root:mysql /usr/local/mysql
• sudo chown -RL mysql:mysql /usr/local/mysql/data
• sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start

This work for me in El Capitan & Sierra

sudo chown -R _mysql:wheel /usr/local/mysql/data

That's it.

Update: to fix auto start

I found it more useful if you fix Auto Starting too:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist

And paste in:

<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?-->
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true />
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mysql.mysqld</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe</string>
      <string>--user=mysql</string>
    </array>        
  </dict>
</plist>

Save it and then:

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist

Then it will load on a restart.

Reference: https://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/get-apache-mysql-php-phpmyadmin-working-osx-10-10-yosemite/