Setting the “authentication plugin” to the older one at the user level is not sufficient if the “default authentication plugin” for the server is set to the newer plugin.
Because the old system cannot negotiate with the new plugin.
You must therefore change the server’s “default authentication plugin” with: defaultauthenticationplugin = mysqlnativepassword in the my.ini configuration file. (%ProgramData%\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\my.ini on Windows). And then restart the server.
my.ini
Defaultauthenticationplugin = mysqlnativepassword.
Mysql>.
alter user '<user>'@'localhost' identified with mysql_native_password by '<Password>’Updated:
2026 Aug 19
