Reset MySQL root password using ALTER USER statement after install on Mac

Question

I'm new to the whole Mac experience. I recently installed MySQL and it seems I have to reset the password after install. It won't let me do anything else.

Now I already reset the password the usual way:

update user set password = password('XXX') where user = root;

(BTW: took me ages to work out that MySQL for some bizarre reason has renamed the field 'password' to 'authentication_string'. I am quite upset about changes like that.)

Unfortunately it seems I need to change the password a different way that is unknown to me. Maybe someone here has already come across that problem?

Answer 1

If this is NOT your first time setting up the password, try this method:

mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('your_new_password')
           WHERE User='root'; 

And if you get the following error, there is a high chance that you have never set your password before:

ERROR 1820 (HY000): You must reset your password using ALTER USER statement before executing this statement. 

To set up your password for the first time:

mysql> SET PASSWORD = PASSWORD('your_new_password');
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec)

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Reference: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/alter-user.html