playframework app cannot connect to database "Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (use password: YES)"

Question

I have the correct username and password and it is correctly configured in the application.conf. I know this because I haven't changed the application.conf and it worked a couple of hours ago. What has changed is that I upgraded Ubuntu from 14.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS (took several steps through the other LTS releases). This also upgraded MySQL from 5.5.43 to 8.0.26. I did not initially upgrade the mysql-connector, but after my app failed to connect to the database, I tried upgrading the connector from 5.1.18 to 8.0.26.

I can log in to MySQL directly from the command line with mysql and the same username and password from application.conf, so I know the username and password still work.

Here's the exception I get from my Play Framework app:

Loading class `com.mysql.jdbc.Driver'. This is deprecated. The new driver class is `com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver'. The driver has automatically registered via the SPI and manual loading of the driver class is generally unnecessary.
Configuration error: Configuration error[Cannot connect to database [default]]
    at play.api.Configuration$.play$api$Configuration$$configError(Configuration.scala:94)
    at play.api.Configuration.reportError(Configuration.scala:743)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:247)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:238)
    at scala.collection.immutable.List.map(List.scala:273)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin.onStart(DB.scala:238)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(Play.scala:91)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1$$anonfun$apply$mcV$sp$1.apply(Play.scala:91)
    at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:381)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply$mcV$sp(Play.scala:91)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply(Play.scala:91)
    at play.api.Play$$anonfun$start$1.apply(Play.scala:91)
    at play.utils.Threads$.withContextClassLoader(Threads.scala:21)
    at play.api.Play$.start(Play.scala:90)
    at play.core.StaticApplication.<init>(ApplicationProvider.scala:55)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$.createServer(NettyServer.scala:253)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$$anonfun$main$3.apply(NettyServer.scala:289)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$$anonfun$main$3.apply(NettyServer.scala:284)
    at scala.Option.map(Option.scala:146)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer$.main(NettyServer.scala:284)
    at play.core.server.NettyServer.main(NettyServer.scala)
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: YES)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.exceptions.SQLError.createSQLException(SQLError.java:129)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.exceptions.SQLExceptionsMapping.translateException(SQLExceptionsMapping.java:122)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.createNewIO(ConnectionImpl.java:828)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.<init>(ConnectionImpl.java:448)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.ConnectionImpl.getInstance(ConnectionImpl.java:241)
    at com.mysql.cj.jdbc.NonRegisteringDriver.connect(NonRegisteringDriver.java:198)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:664)
    at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:247)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCP.obtainRawInternalConnection(BoneCP.java:363)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCP.<init>(BoneCP.java:416)
    at com.jolbox.bonecp.BoneCPDataSource.getConnection(BoneCPDataSource.java:120)
    at play.api.db.BoneCPPlugin$$anonfun$onStart$1.apply(DB.scala:240)
    ... 18 more

And here's the successful login from the command line:

$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 31
Server version: 8.0.26-0ubuntu0.20.04.3 (Ubuntu)

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Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> 

application.conf has the following lines:

db.default.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
db.default.url="jdbc:mysql://localhost/mydatabase"
db.default.user=root
db.default.pass="password"

I have Play Framework 2.3.9 and Java 1.8.0_51 (both unchanged during the upgrade).

Answer 1

remove quotes from password in config I checked the spec, you're right quotes dont matter.