Warning the user/local/mysql/data directory is not owned by the mysql user

mysql macos

42,146

Solution 1

If you can't start mysql service in snow leopard, and in the panel prefs appears 'warning the user/local/mysql/data directory is not owned by the mysql user', you have to:

sudo chown -RL root:mysql /usr/local/mysql
sudo chown -RL mysql:mysql /usr/local/mysql/data
sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start

Solution 2

This work for me in El Capitan & Sierra

sudo chown -R _mysql:wheel /usr/local/mysql/data

That's it.

Update: to fix auto start

I found it more useful if you fix Auto Starting too:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist

And paste in:

<!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?-->
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true />
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mysql.mysqld</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe</string>
      <string>--user=mysql</string>
    </array>        
  </dict>
</plist>

Save it and then:

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysql.plist

Then it will load on a restart.

Reference: https://coolestguidesontheplanet.com/get-apache-mysql-php-phpmyadmin-working-osx-10-10-yosemite/

42,146

Kronos

Updated on November 08, 2020

Comments

Kronos over 3 years

I can't start the mysql service in Snow Leopard, and in the panel prefs appears the message,

warning the user/local/mysql/data directory is not owned by the mysql user

How can I fix this?
- Scott over 11 years
  
  Thank you. Whether it's a question or not, it solved the issue for me.
- joemar.ct over 11 years
  
  I had the same problem in Mountain Lion, this worked for me.
- Henley over 11 years
  
  Who cares if it's not a question. It worked. +10000000 points.
- callum over 11 years
  
  This solved my problem, but I think it's a disgrace that @Kronos tried to use SO to be helpful in the wrong format. An absolute disgrace. This blatant disregard for the Q&A format could permanently destabilise this community. To the administrators who closed this thread: keep fighting the good fight. I believe in you.
- Chris Craft almost 11 years
  
  Well Jeff Atwood the creator of the site says "It’s OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions", blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/… and searches on Google are pretty much coming here for the answer as well.
- Josh over 10 years
  
  +1 as it worked for me. I do agree with both Chris and callum at the same time. As the article that Chris pointed out, it IS okay to answer your own QUESTION. The point is here there is no question to answer, just the answer. It would've been better if he would've asked the question, then answered it.
- Julia Zhao almost 10 years
  
  I had the same problem in Mavericks. The suggested commands worked for me. Thanks!
- monal86 almost 10 years
  
  Thanks so much! I was struggling to fix my issue and this was a life saver!!
- Nirmal Ram over 9 years
  
  Thanks, You saved my day.
Shog9 over 9 years

Apparently this is still biting people - so I've moved your answer into an... Answer. Hope you don't mind...
John Ruddell over 8 years

for others coming to this now.. this works in El Capitan as well
zeros-and-ones over 8 years

Why hasn't this been checked as the correct answer?
albertski over 8 years

I couldn't get mysql to start after upgrading to El Capitan. This worked for me.
Joshua Pinter about 8 years

@zeros-ones Because the OP originally answered it in the question itself and an admin (@Shog9) moved it to an answer. The OP needs to mark it as the correct answer now.
craigmiller160 about 8 years

is wheel your own user name, or something special? If that could be clarified that would be great
Ihab Shoully about 8 years

Wheel is (Unix term) refers to a user account with a wheel bit.
saq7 over 7 years

This fixed it in Sierra, as well.
lewis over 7 years

This randomly started happening to me on Sierra (weeks after updating). Fix still works
Dave Nottage almost 7 years

Seriously.. does this happen after every macOS update??
Feras about 6 years

it's working, You save my time on macOS Hight Sierra, Yes @DaveNottage this happened after Sierra update
Joshua Pinter over 5 years

Tried this on macOS Mojave and no joy. I get ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file when trying mysql.server start
Nick Lee about 5 years

What is a 'wheel bit' ?
Ihab Shoully about 5 years

'Wheel bit' is a system setting that provides additional special system privileges that empower a user to execute restricted commands that ordinary user accounts cannot access.
Ben over 4 years

Tried this on MacOS Catalina - I got an error message on the last command (sorry, I didn't save the message) but the server seems to be up and running for me.