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MySQL 8 accounts on caching_sha2_password connect on the first try, with no auth plugin to switch over. The same bundled driver covers 5.7 and later, and MariaDB as well; MariaDB-specific notes are on MariaDB.

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Quick setup

1

Create Connection

Click Create Connection… on the welcome window and pick MySQL
2

Test and Save

Fill in host, port, and credentials, click Test Connection, then Save & Connect

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Connection settings

The session character set is utf8mb4, so emoji and non-Latin text round-trip untouched. A connect attempt gives up after 10 seconds.

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Connection URL

Opening a URL connects directly. See Connection URL Reference.

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Common setups

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Users & Roles

Database > Users & Roles manages users, roles, and privileges. Changes are staged and shown as SQL before they run. See Users & Roles.

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Query plans

EXPLAIN FORMAT=JSON, EXPLAIN FORMAT=TREE, and EXPLAIN ANALYZE render as a plan diagram or tree; plain multi-column EXPLAIN stays in the results grid. See EXPLAIN Visualization.
Visual EXPLAIN plan diagram

EXPLAIN rendered as a visual plan

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Browsing

The sidebar lists every accessible database with each table’s structure and DDL. Switch databases with Cmd+K. A tab keeps the database it was opened on; MySQL switches database in place, so that tab runs on the same connection rather than a second one. Table and column comments show in the UI: dimmed after a table’s name in the sidebar, and in the grid header tooltip. Right-click the sidebar and choose View Options > Comments to turn that off.

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SSL/TLS

New connections default to Preferred: TLS first, dropping to plain text only after an SSL handshake error. Pick Verify CA with the provider’s certificate for strict validation. See SSL/TLS.

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Limitations

  • No Unix socket connections. Give the connection a host and a port, and leave networking on in the server.
  • LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE is refused by the driver. Load the file with File > Import > Import Data… instead.

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Troubleshooting

Connection refused: check the server is running (brew services start mysql), the port is right, and skip-networking is not set. Access denied for user ’…’@’…’ (using password: YES): the password is wrong, or the grant does not cover the host you are connecting from. Check both with SHOW GRANTS FOR 'user'@'host';. Auth plugin errors: caching_sha2_password needs no configuration. For any other plugin error, read the account’s plugin with SELECT user, plugin FROM mysql.user;.