1045 MySQL Origin: Data MySQL 5.7+, MariaDB Last updated 14 Oct 2026

MySQL ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user

MySQL rejected the login — wrong password, wrong user/host combination, or the user doesn’t exist.

Exact message you may see Access denied for userERROR 1045 (28000)SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045]using password: YESusing password: NO
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Seen on: MySQL Linux PHP Docker

Meaning

MySQL accounts are user@host pairs. 'app'@'localhost' and 'app'@'%' are different accounts with possibly different passwords. The message tells you which host MySQL matched and whether a password was sent (“using password: YES/NO”).

Common causes

  • Wrong password (or special characters mangled by the shell/config)
  • User exists for a different host (localhost vs 127.0.0.1 vs %)
  • “using password: NO” — the app didn’t send any password (empty env var)
  • Root uses auth_socket on Ubuntu, so password login fails
  • Docker: connecting to localhost instead of the DB container hostname
  • User was created but privileges not granted on the database

⚡ Quick fix

  1. Check “using password: YES/NO” — NO means your config is empty
  2. Log in as root and list accounts: SELECT user, host, plugin FROM mysql.user;
  3. Create/alter the user for the exact host the app connects from
  4. Grant privileges on the database
  5. In Docker, use the service name as host (e.g. db)

Detailed fix by platform

MySQL

  1. Create or fix the user (MySQL 8 / MariaDB):
    sql
    CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS 'app'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPass!23';
ALTER USER 'app'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPass!23';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON appdb.* TO 'app'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Linux

  1. Ubuntu root via socket: sudo mysql works without a password; use it to create a separate app user instead of using root.

PHP

  1. Check the DSN host and that .env values are loaded (Laravel: php artisan config:clear after editing .env).

Docker

  1. Use MYSQL_USER/MYSQL_PASSWORD env vars on first start only — changing them later doesn’t update an existing data volume.

Code examples

Test exactly what the app uses

bash
mysql -h 127.0.0.1 -P 3306 -u app -p appdb

-h localhost uses the Unix socket; -h 127.0.0.1 uses TCP — they can match different accounts.

How to diagnose

  1. Message — Which user@host, and password YES or NO?
  2. Accounts — Does that exact user@host exist?
  3. Password — Correct and not mangled by quoting?
  4. Privileges — Granted on the target database?
  5. Network — Right host (socket vs TCP vs container name)?

🔧 Still not fixed?

Many errors look alike. If the steps above didn’t solve it, one of these is probably what you’re facing:

Where this error sits

Origin: Data. Errors that are often confused with or caused by this one (click to open):

1044 — MySQL ERROR 1044 (42000): Access denied for user to database (MySQL)10441049 — MySQL ERROR 1049 (42000): Unknown database 'x' (MySQL)10491130 — MySQL ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host 'x' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server (MySQL)11301142 — MySQL ERROR 1142 (42000): SELECT command denied to user 'x'@'host' for table 'y' (MySQL)11421227 — MySQL ERROR 1227 (42000): Access denied; you need (at least one of) the SUPER privilege(s) for this operation (MySQL)12271418 — MySQL ERROR 1418 (HY000): This function has none of DETERMINISTIC, NO SQL, or READS SQL DATA in its declaration and binary logging is enabled (MySQL)14181698 — MySQL ERROR 1698 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (MySQL)169818456 — SQL Server: Login failed for user 'x'. (Error 18456) (SQL)184561045

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