Access Denied for User 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES) - No Privileges?

Question

I am continuously receiving this error.

I am using mySQL Workbench and from what I am finding is that root's schema privileges are null. There are no privileges at all.

I am having troubles across platforms that my server is used for and this has been all of a sudden issue.

[email protected] apparently has a lot of access but I am logged in as that, but it just assigns to localhost anyways - localhost has no privileges.

I have done a few things like FLUSH HOSTS, FLUSH PRIVILEGES, etc but have found no success from that or the internet.

How can I get root its access back? I find this frustrating because when I look around people expect you to "have access" but I don't have access so I can't go into command line or anything and GRANT myself anything.

When running SHOW GRANTS FOR root this is what I get in return:

Error Code: 1141. There is no such grant defined for user 'root' on host '%'

Answer 1

If you have that same problem in MySql 5.7.+ :

Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost'

it's because MySql 5.7 by default allow to connect with socket, which means you just connect with sudo mysql. If you run sql :

SELECT user,authentication_string,plugin,host FROM mysql.user;

then you will see it :

+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| user             | authentication_string                     | plugin                | host      |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| root             |                                           | auth_socket           | localhost |
| mysql.session    | *THISISNOTAVALIDPASSWORDTHATCANBEUSEDHERE | mysql_native_password | localhost |
| mysql.sys        | *THISISNOTAVALIDPASSWORDTHATCANBEUSEDHERE | mysql_native_password | localhost |
| debian-sys-maint | *497C3D7B50479A812B89CD12EC3EDA6C0CB686F0 | mysql_native_password | localhost |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

To allow connection with root and password, then update the values in the table with command :

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'Current-Root-Password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Then run the select command again and you'll see it has changed :

+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| user             | authentication_string                     | plugin                | host      |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
| root             | *2F2377C1BC54BE827DC8A4EE051CBD57490FB8C6 | mysql_native_password | localhost |
| mysql.session    | *THISISNOTAVALIDPASSWORDTHATCANBEUSEDHERE | mysql_native_password | localhost |
| mysql.sys        | *THISISNOTAVALIDPASSWORDTHATCANBEUSEDHERE | mysql_native_password | localhost |
| debian-sys-maint | *497C3D7B50479A812B89CD12EC3EDA6C0CB686F0 | mysql_native_password | localhost |
+------------------+-------------------------------------------+-----------------------+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

And that's it. You can run this process after running and completing the sudo mysql_secure_installation command.

For mariadb, use

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('manager');

to set password. More at https://mariadb.com/kb/en/set-password/