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MBPro17

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 14, 2016
42
34
Hello,

Not sure if this is the correct forum. Please move if it isn't.

I'm just a basic Mac user. I mainly use Safari, Excel, and Word. But I wanted to learn SQL so I went to a site and one of the first things it had me do was download MySQL. Fine. I download and install 8.0.15 but it refuses to start the server, it goes green for a moment and then dies. During installation it asked me to set a password which I did.

Then I notice demonstrator in video is using 5.7. So I download that and installed. It did not give me a password or ask me to set a password at any point. Now when I try to start it it completely quite System Preferences. I read something about removing it form the System Preferences panel, which I did.

So now I just want to get rid of all of it. The instructions I find online keep sending me to the terminal to perform a bunch of commands, but I can't get past the first one because it askes for a password and the one I created is not working. I was hoping for something drag and drop into the trash.

Can anyone please tell me how to completely remove any and all MySQL from my machine without a working password?

Thank you
 

grandM

macrumors 68000
Oct 14, 2013
1,508
298
I suppose you are being asked for the administrator password of your Mac, not that of MySQL
 
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organicCPU

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2016
827
287
Yes @grandM is right, that is your admin password, you need to enter, if running sudo commands.

Another way to delete your current installation without Terminal…

- in Finder navigate to your volume's root directory (double click on Macintosh HD or whatever the name of your main drive is, if not already on the top level directory, select Macintosh HD from the sidebar)
- choose list view (Cmd + 2)
- make hidden folders visible press (Cmd + Shift + .)
- navigate to the following 5 files and folders and delete them (select with single click and press Cmd + Backspace), enter your admin password, if the dialog window is asking for it.
Code:
MySQL Server:
1.)
/usr/local/mysql-8.0.15-osx10.14-x86_64/
2.)
/usr/local/mysql-5.7.25-osx10.14-x86_64/

Symlink to MySQL Server folder:
3.)
/usr/local/mysql

MySQL Unix socket:
4.)
/private/tmp/mysql.sock

MySQL Launch Daemon:
5.)
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
- make hidden folders invisible again (press Cmd + Shift + .)
- restart the Mac or log out and in again
- empty the trash

Installation locations taken from:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/osx-installation-pkg.html
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/osx-installation-pkg.html

Learning MySQL is fun and a bit more easy by starting within a local developer environment.
E.g., that could be using pre-built Apache stack bundle packages like MAMP and/or AMPPS:
https://www.mamp.info (server with all you need and a GUI for starting and stopping -> good starting point)
https://ampps.com (more complex, but with many one click installations like Wordpress, etc. -> easy web app setup)

Instead of using the Terminal, phpMyAdmin (included within mentioned bundles) is great for setting up a database and learn SQL commands. For designing more complex databases, MySQLWorkbench is also worth a look.
 
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