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Last active April 16, 2026 20:35
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Remove MySQL completely from Mac OSX

Remove MySQL completely

  1. Open the Terminal

  2. Use mysqldump to backup your databases

  3. Check for MySQL processes with: ps -ax | grep mysql

  4. Stop and kill any MySQL processes

  5. Analyze MySQL on HomeBrew:

    brew remove mysql
    brew cleanup
    
  6. Remove files:

    sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
    sudo rm -rf /usr/local/var/mysql
    sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
    sudo rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
    sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
    sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
    
  7. Unload previous MySQL Auto-Login:

    launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
    
  8. Remove previous MySQL Configuration:

    # Edit this file: /etc/hostconfig
    # Remove the line MYSQLCOM=-YES-
    
  9. Remove previous MySQL Preferences:

    rm -rf ~/Library/PreferencePanes/My*
    sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
    sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
    sudo rm -rf /private/var/db/receipts/*mysql*
    
  10. Restart your computer just to ensure any MySQL processes are killed

  11. Try to run mysql, it shouldn't work

Remove MySQL completely (Apple Silicon Version)

  • brew remove mysql
  • rm -rf /opt/homebrew/var/mysql
  • brew install mysql
  • mysql.server start
  • mysql -uroot
@tnorthcutt

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This was very helpful. I also had to do:

rm /usr/local/etc/my.cnf

Something I had done previously had resulted in a my.cnf file that prevented MySQL from working (I was getting the dreaded ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) error).

@annstringer

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This helped. I also had the ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) and also had to remove rm /usr/local/etc/my.cnf.

Thanks.

@genorchiomento

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Thanks bro! This helped

@HimanshuLuthra

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Do reboot else it wont work

@brendanfalkowski

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This helped immensely a couple months ago, and I finally went back to document the fix in my field manuals for Homebrew and Valet Plus:

@AlaaKho

AlaaKho commented Jul 21, 2019

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I did all the process and worked then I installed again the mysql

$ brew install mysql
$ brew tap homebrew/services
$ brew services run mysql

And everything start work until today, where I tried to run my local website (as any other day) and I got:

ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

After that, every answer that I tried takes me to another error and so on. This is not the first time that happened and the only solution is re-install everything. So I was wondering if anyone have any idea why this could be happening. I don't want to run the entire process every time that mysql decide crash, but I want fix the problem or at least understand what is going on.
sequelize/cli#572

hey dear you can fix your problem by running
mysql.server start

Has anyone managed to solve this? This happened suddenly to me, and mysql server became unstable, and I couldn't connect to it (giving the same error mentioned).? and would I face this still even if I reinstalled?

@dannguyen

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Regarding Step 6:

sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*

Is it necessary to use such a wildcard here, instead of a more explicit pattern? MySQL can't be the only thing (now, or in the future) that a user might have in /Library/PreferencePanes that begins with My, right?

@aravindcf

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Thanks a lot. I followed the same procedure. But when I typed mysql I was getting ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock'. I used sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/mysql*. That worked.

@QubeChan

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Can you clarify on step 4? I try killing the process but it mysqld won't die it'll show up under a new id

@brendanfalkowski

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@QubeChan β€” I had the some problem. Documented here: https://manuals.gravitydept.com/develop/command-line/brew

I skipped it and didn't have issues with the remaining steps.

@crmpicco

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Thanks for posting

@sandokan815

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It saved my many days. thanks

@yogesh-desai

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Thank you. Great post! Saved a lot of time

@Yigaue

Yigaue commented Jan 14, 2020

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Good post. I defaulted to install DBngin and it worked for me.

@callump5

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Thanks this got it all working!

@brunofariasdeo

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Helped a lot, thank you!

@Anishmourya

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After long searching , i solved this issue , downloaded official mac os community file from :- https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/file/?id=492745
it worked for mac os Catalina 10.15 , check this link :- https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-osx-excerpt/5.7/en/osx-installation-pkg.html , they also mentioned required packages to run mysql on mac os , specially "/tmp/mysql.sock" at bottom .

@cjstage

cjstage commented Apr 6, 2020

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Saved my behind.

@dannydickson

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This was very helpful. I also had to do:

rm /usr/local/etc/my.cnf

Something I had done previously had resulted in a my.cnf file that prevented MySQL from working (I was getting the dreaded ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) error).

Apparently, this config file can live in several places: /etc/my.cnf, OR /etc/mysql/my.cnf OR ~/.my.cnf. My particular install had placed it at /etc/my.cnf as well, but thought I'd drop the other options here in case anybody else is down this same rabbit hole as me one day.

Thanks to OP @vitorbritto for the great gist as well!

@vishwarajanand

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Thanks, it worked :-)

@vycz

vycz commented May 14, 2020

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Thanks

@ronaksahai

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how do we do step 8... removing the line part

@spmaniusa-hub

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Thanks a lot. It would have been good if I got this article first. I would have saved about 5 hours :-(

@msidana

msidana commented Jul 6, 2020

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Thank you so much. I wish I had landed up on this page much earlier. I struggled so much. This is an excellent page, Thanks πŸ‘

@sammyrTX

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Thank you! Very helpful!

@swashata

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Thank you very much. It is notoriously difficult to uninstall mysql data. Your tutorial did the trick! πŸ‘

@lexjacobs

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subl /etc/hostconfig`
has a hanging backtick

@mkomigor

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πŸ‘

@sreekanth-a1

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thank you very much

ghost commented Sep 24, 2020

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Thank you , it's help a lot !

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