SQLSTATE[HY000] [1045] Access denied for user 'username'@'localhost' using CakePHP

That error message usually means that either the password we are using doesn't match what MySQL thinks the password should be for the user we're connecting as, or a matching MySQL user doesn't exist (hasn't been created).

In MySQL, a user is identified by both a username ("test2") and a host ("localhost").

The error message identifies the user ("test2") and the host ("localhost") values...

  'test2'@'localhost'

We can check to see if the user exists, using this query from a client we can connect from:

 SELECT user, host FROM mysql.user

We're looking for a row that has "test2" for user, and "localhost" for host.

 user     host       
 -------  -----------
 test2     127.0.0.1  cleanup
 test2     ::1        
 test2     localhost  

If that row doesn't exist, then the host may be set to wildcard value of %, to match any other host that isn't a match.

If the row exists, then the password may not match. We can change the password (if we're connected as a user with sufficient privileges, e.g. root

 SET PASSWORD FOR 'test2'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('mysecretcleartextpassword')

We can also verify that the user has privileges on objects in the database.

 GRANT SELECT ON jobs.* TO 'test2'@'localhost' 

---

EDIT

If we make changes to mysql privilege tables with DML operations (INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE), those changes will not take effect until MySQL re-reads the tables. We can make changes effective by forcing a re-read with a FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement, executed by a privileged user.

Check Following Things

• Make Sure You Have MySQL Server Running
• Check connection with default credentials i.e. username : 'root' & password : '' [Blank Password]
• Try login phpmyadmin with same credentials
• Try to put 127.0.0.1 instead localhost or your lan IP would do too.
• Make sure you are running MySql on 3306 and if you have configured make sure to state it while making a connection

I saw it's solved, but I still want to share a solution which worked for me.

.env file:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=[your database name]
DB_USERNAME=[your MySQL username]
DB_PASSWORD=[your MySQL password]

MySQL admin:

 SELECT user, host FROM mysql.user

Thank you, spencer7593

Console:

php artisan cache:clear
php artisan config:cache

Now it works for me.

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