In this post, we are going to see how to start, stop, and restart MySQL Server on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

1. On Mac

You can start/stop/restart MySQL Server via the command line.

  • For the version of MySQL older than 5.7:
sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start
sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server stop
sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server restart
  • For the MySQL version 5.7 and newer:
sudo launchctl load -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist

sudo launchctl unload -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
  • Or you can turn it on/off via the macOS Preference Panel

MySQL Preference Panel

There’s another way which you can use DBngin, an free utility to install and manage multiple database servers on Mac.

  • To turn on/off, it’s just one click away from the server control panel:

DBngin local server

2. On Linux

  • On Linux start/stop from the command line:
/etc/init.d/mysqld start 
/etc/init.d/mysqld stop 
/etc/init.d/mysqld restart
  • Some Linux flavours offer the service command too
service mysqld start 
service mysqld stop 
service mysqld restart
  • or
service mysql start
service mysql stop
service mysql restart

3. On Windows

  • Open Run Window by Winkey + R
  • Type services.msc
  • Search MySQL service based on version installed.
  • Click stop, start or restart the service option.

Or you can start/stop MySQL from the command prompt:

C:\> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin\mysqld"
C:\> "C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin\mysqladmin" -u root shutdown

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