SQLException: Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’

Have you ever faced problem of Access denied for user or any login related issues after re-installing MySQL server. I faced this issue and when I googled it, I saw many others are also suffering from this problem frequently. In this post, I will suggest you a good try which will solve this problem in 95% of cases.

Reason of Access denied Error

Access denied error for user ‘root’ problem occurs mostly when you un-install and install a new version or even previous version also. The problem lies in in-complete cleanup done by mysql uninstaller wizard. So, solution is also very simple, cleanup remaining junk manually.

You exception will look like this:

Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:1055)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:956)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:3491)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:3423)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.checkErrorPacket(MysqlIO.java:910)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.secureAuth411(MysqlIO.java:3923)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.MysqlIO.doHandshake(MysqlIO.java:1273)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.createNewIO(ConnectionImpl.java:2031)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.init(ConnectionImpl.java:718)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.JDBC4Connection.init(JDBC4Connection.java:46)
 at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
 at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
 at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(Unknown Source)
 at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Unknown Source)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.Util.handleNewInstance(Util.java:406)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getInstance(ConnectionImpl.java:302)
 at com.mysql.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:282)
 at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
 at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(Unknown Source)
 at org.hibernate.connection.DriverManagerConnectionProvider.getConnection(DriverManagerConnectionProvider.java:110)
 at org.hibernate.jdbc.ConnectionManager.openConnection(ConnectionManager.java:417)
 ... 5 more

Solution

Solution to access denied error is to remove old data folder from following location.

C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Application Data/MySQL [refer here]

This directory contains temp files and old DB data including your last login credentials used in previous installation. So, to solve this issue:

1. Uninstall MYSQL server
2. Remove everything from above folder
3. Install a fresh MySQL server

You should be good to login in this in instance of Server.

Happy Learning !!