[Bug]: MySQL Access Denied since 1.26.0

[olivermbs]

Platform

macOS

Operating system version

macOS Sequoia 15.7.3

System architecture

ARM64 (M1, M2, etc)

Herd Version

1.26.0 (Pro)

PHP Version

No response

Bug description

Since updating Herd to 1.26.0 I now get the MySQL Error:

[28000][1045] Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)

This was not happening before. I have tried restarting both the service and the app multiple times, no luck.

Steps to reproduce

1. Update to 1.26.0
2. Attempt to connect to MySQL 8.0.36 using default credentials:
   mysql -u root -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -p

Relevant log output

Nothing showing in MySQL log

[mpociot]

Hey!

Can you share your my.cnf file and als check if there is an error log file in your MySQL service directory?

[olivermbs]

Servus Marcel!

Here is my.cnf:

[mysqld]
datadir="/Users/oliver/Library/Application Support/Herd/config/services/C99953D7-369B-4886-A5DD-099FBD214CAB/"
basedir="/Users/Shared/Herd/services/mysql/8.0.36"
socket="/tmp/mysql-C99953D7-369B-4886-A5DD-099FBD214CAB.sock"
log-error="/Users/oliver/Library/Application Support/Herd/config/services/C99953D7-369B-4886-A5DD-099FBD214CAB//error.log"
plugin-dir="/Users/Shared/Herd/services/mysql/8.0.36/lib/plugin"
disable_log_bin
default-time-zone='+00:00'

Stopping the old service and creating a new one fixed the issue. The update may have corrupted the first service.

This is showing in today's error log:

2026-02-17T08:10:15.505837Z 0 [System] [MY-010116] [Server] /Users/Shared/Herd/services/mysql/8.0.36/bin/mysqld (mysqld 8.0.36) starting as process 58338
2026-02-17T08:10:15.509879Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010159] [Server] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /Users/oliver/Library/Application Support/Herd/config/services/C99953D7-369B-4886-A5DD-099FBD214CAB/ is case insensitive
2026-02-17T08:10:15.527442Z 1 [System] [MY-013576] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has started.
2026-02-17T08:10:16.165990Z 1 [System] [MY-013577] [InnoDB] InnoDB initialization has ended.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.334025Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010918] [Repl] 'rpl_semi_sync_master' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use rpl_semi_sync_source instead.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.334065Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010918] [Repl] 'rpl_semi_sync_slave' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use rpl_semi_sync_replica instead.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.360989Z 0 [Warning] [MY-010068] [Server] CA certificate ca.pem is self signed.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.361025Z 0 [System] [MY-013602] [Server] Channel mysql_main configured to support TLS. Encrypted connections are now supported for this channel.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.370890Z 0 [Warning] [MY-013368] [Server] At least one partial revoke exists on a database. Turning ON the system variable '@@partial_revokes'.
2026-02-17T08:10:17.380340Z 0 [System] [MY-011323] [Server] X Plugin ready for connections. Bind-address: '::' port: 33060, socket: /tmp/mysqlx.sock
2026-02-17T08:10:17.380361Z 0 [System] [MY-010931] [Server] /Users/Shared/Herd/services/mysql/8.0.36/bin/mysqld: ready for connections. Version: '8.0.36'  socket: '/tmp/mysql-C99953D7-369B-4886-A5DD-099FBD214CAB.sock'  port: 3306  MySQL Community Server - GPL.
2026-02-17T08:10:18.765581Z 8 [Warning] [MY-013360] [Server] Plugin sha256_password reported: ''sha256_password' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Please use caching_sha2_password instead'

The last point in the log may be the clue?

[olivermbs]

Sorry Marcel, looks like the issue was on my end. I was importing a MySQL dump from a Managed DigitalOcean server, which seems to also overwrite the database credentials. By just importing the needed schema, instead of the whole DB, this issue appears to be solved. Apologies!

[mpociot]

No worries, glad you figured it out!
Is there anything that you wish Herd would've shown you to make this easier to spot?

[olivermbs]

Good question! Since the import happened outside Herd (DataGrip), Herd probably can't prevent it, but it could detect it afterwards.

Perhaps adding a “MySQL credential drift” check could help? If Herd’s configured DB user (e.g. root) suddenly can’t authenticate, show a warning that the local MySQL system users likely changed externally (common cause: importing a dump that included mysql.*).

Also warn that the env vars shown may no longer match reality, and offer a one-click “Reset/Reinitialize local MySQL users".

Just some ideas :-)