Cannot connect to Database server (mysql workbench)

Could you help me solve this problem ?

When I try to click "query database" under database menu in Mysql workbench. it gives me an error:

Cannot Connect to Database Server

Your connection attempt failed for user 'root' from your host to server at 127.0.0.1:3306:Can't connect to mysql server on '127.0.0.1'(10061)

Please:

Check that mysql is running on server 127.0.0.1

Check that mysql is running on port 3306 (note: 3306 is the default, but this can be changed)

Check the root has rights to connect to 127.0.0.1 from your address (mysql rights define what clients can connect to the server and from which machines)

Make sure you are both providing a password if needed and using the correct password for 127.0.0.1 connecting from the host address you're connecting from

Solution 1:

The issue is likely due to socket authentication being enabled for the root user by default when no password is set, during the upgrade to ubuntu 16.04.

The solution is to revert back to native password authentication. You can do this by logging in to MySQL using socket authentication by doing:

sudo mysql -u root

Once logged in:

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

which will revert back to the native (old default) password authentication.

Now use password as the password whenever required by MySQL.

Solution 2:

Try opening services.msc from the start menu search box and try manually starting the MySQL service or directly write services.msc in Run box

Solution 3:

It looks like there are a lot of causes of this error.

My Cause / Solution

In my case, the cause was that my server was configured to only accept connections from localhost. I fixed it by following this article: How Do I Enable Remote Access To MySQL Database Server?. My my.cnf file had no skip-networking line, so I just changed the line

bind-address = 127.0.0.1

bind-address = 0.0.0.0

This allows connections from any IP, not just 127.0.0.1.

Then, I created a MySql user that could connect from my client machine by running the following terminal commands:

# mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE USER 'username'@'1.2.3.4' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
    -> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'username'@'1.2.3.4' WITH GRANT OPTION;
    -> \q

where 1.2.3.4 is the IP of the client you are trying to connect from. If you really have trouble, you can use '%' instead of '1.2.3.4' to allow the user to connect from any IP.

Other Causes

For a fairly extensive list, see Causes of Access-Denied Errors.