MySQL Workbench: How to keep the connection alive

From the now unavailable internet archive:

Go to Edit -> Preferences -> SQL Editor and set to a higher value this parameter: DBMS connection read time out (in seconds). For instance: 86400.

Close and reopen MySQL Workbench. Kill your previously query that probably is running and run the query again.

I had a similar problem where CREATE FULLTEXT timed out after 30 seconds:

Setting DBMS connection read timeout interval to 0 under Edit -> Preferences -> SQL Editor fixed the issue for me:

Also, I did not have to restart mysql workbench for this to work.

In 5.2.47 (at least on mac), go the location of the preferences is: MySQLWorkbench->Preferences->SQL Editor

Then you'll see both:

DBMS connection keep-alive interval (in seconds): DBMS connection read time out (in seconds):

The latter is where you'll want to up the limit from 600 to something a bit more.

If you are using a "Standard TCP/IP over SSH" type of connection, under "Preferences"->"Others" there is "SSH KeepAlive" field. It took me quite a while to find it :(