MacOSX homebrew mysql root password

Question

For some reason MySQL stopped giving access for root. Uninstalled and reinstalled with Homebrew. Fresh install, fresh tables but when I enter

mysql -u root -         


        

Answer 1

Since the question was asked/answered long time ago, those top answers do not work for me. Here's my solution, in 2020.

Background: Fresh mysql/mariadb installed by homebrew.

Problem: The password for root is not empty and unknown.

The fix:

1. mysql -u YOUR-SYSTEM-USERNAME -p
2. The password is empty (press enter)
3. ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'NEW-ROOT-PASSWORD';
4. FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

The reason:

1. Homebrew will create a user with root privileges named by the current MacOS username.
2. it has no password
3. Since it has all privileges, just reset the root password with that user.
4. The initial password for root was randomly generated.