asp.net / MySQL: Access denied for user ''@'localhost' (using password: NO)

Question

I\'m a web dev rookie and I\'m hoping someone with more experience can help sort this out. I was ambushed by a MySQL upgrade.

Background: I have tw

Answer 1

Solved. Hopefully this helps someone else with similar problems, and eases a few migraines along the way. A week of sheer panic left me seeking divine intervention when all else had failed, so the big guy upstairs gets the checkmark for this one. :)

Cause: Re-installing MySQL and the .NET connector meant the machine.config file customizations were overwritten.

Solution: After the updates, make sure the following two changes are in place in the machine.config file...

(1)

(2)

It was the second one that was tripping me up. During the reinstall the code had been changed to...

...which is why the site was attempting to connect to the localhost, and why the user info in the web.config connectionstring was being ignored.