Introduction This error may be due to one of the following reasons: MySQL 5.7 / MySQL 8+ In MySQL 5.7 (released Oct 2015) and MySQL 8, the root MySQL user is set to authenticate using the auth_socket or caching_sha2_password plugin rather than with mysql_native_password. This will prevent programs like phpMyAdmin from logging in with the root account. You can … Continue reading Can’t log into phpMyAdmin: mysqli_real_connect(): (HY000/1698): Access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’