Hey there! I see you're hitting a database access error with Laravel 6 even though you can connect to MySQL just fine via mysqlshow. Let's walk through some common fixes that usually resolve this:

1. Clear Laravel's Configuration Cache #

Laravel caches config files to boost performance, which means changes to your .env file might not take effect immediately. Run these commands in your project root to refresh the cache:

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear

This forces Laravel to read the latest values from your .env instead of relying on stale cached settings.

2. Double-Check Your .env File Formatting #

Even tiny formatting issues can break your database connection:

• Avoid extra spaces around credentials. For example, skip DB_PASSWORD= "your-password" (space after equals sign) — use DB_PASSWORD="your-password" or DB_PASSWORD=your-password instead.
• Confirm you're using the correct Laravel 6 environment variables, and don't forget to set your target database name:

  DB_CONNECTION=mysql
  DB_HOST=localhost
  DB_PORT=3306
  DB_DATABASE=rm1 # Match this to the database you want Laravel to use
  DB_USERNAME=root
  DB_PASSWORD=your_env_password_here
  

3. Switch DB_HOST from localhost to 127.0.0.1 #

MySQL handles localhost and 127.0.0.1 differently on Windows: localhost uses a named pipe, while 127.0.0.1 uses TCP/IP. Sometimes Laravel has trouble with the pipe connection. Update your .env to:

DB_HOST=127.0.0.1

4. Update MySQL User Authentication Plugin #

MySQL 8.0 defaults to caching_sha2_password, but older PHP setups (including some Laravel 6 environments) struggle with this. Switch your root user to the more compatible mysql_native_password plugin:

1. Connect to MySQL via Workbench.
2. Run these SQL commands:

   ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'your_env_password';
   FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   

3. Restart your MySQL service to apply the change.

5. Verify config/database.php Isn't Overriding .env Settings #

Check your config/database.php file to ensure the MySQL configuration pulls values from your .env instead of hardcoding them. It should look like this:

'mysql' => [
    'driver' => 'mysql',
    'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
    'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
    'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
    'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
    'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
    // ... other default settings
],

If you see hardcoded values here (like 'username' => 'root' without the env() wrapper), that could be overriding your .env settings.

Give these steps a try, and let me know if any of them get your artisan commands working again!

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者R Mac