Upgrade MySQL 8 in XAMPP from MySQL 5.7 or 5.4

The latest version of XAMPP contains MariaDB instead of MySQL.

But MariaDB is not 100% compatible with MySQL and can be replaced with the “original” MySQL server.

Requirements

Windows
The latest XAMPP for Windows v.7.1+ (64-Bit)
The latest Visual C++ Redistributable Packages,
- How to install the Visual C++ Redistributable
Administrator privileges to restart Windows services

Backup

Backup the old databases into a SQL dump file (without the system databases)
Stop the MariaDB service
Rename the folder: c:\xampp\mysql to c:\xampp\mariadb

Installation

Download MySQL Community Server 8.x (64-Bit) from: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
Scroll down to Other Downloads: and click Download.
Click the link: No thanks, just start my download
Create a new and empty folder: c:\xampp\mysql
Extract ZIP archive to: c:\xampp\mysql
Create a new file: c:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.ini and copy this content:

[mysqld]
# Set basedir to your installation path
basedir=c:/xampp/mysql

# Set datadir to the location of your data directory
datadir=c:/xampp/mysql/data

# Default: 128 MB
# New: 1024 MB
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1024M

# Default since MySQL 8: caching_sha2_password
default_authentication_plugin=mysql_native_password

[client]
ssl-mode=DISABLED

Initializing the data directory

Important: Don’t skip this step!

cd c:\xampp\mysql\bin

mysqld.exe --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password --initialize-insecure --basedir=c:\xampp\mysql --datadir=c:\xampp\mysql\data

Start the MySQL service (in your XAMPP Control Panel)

Data restore

You can’t import the databases from MySQL 5.7 or MySQL 5.4 as sometimes the import will not work. So recommended approach is to do manually export from old database version and then import into MySQL 8.

Done.

Known issues

Error: Authentication plugin 'caching_sha2_password' cannot be loaded
- MySQL 8 uses caching_sha2_password as default authentication plugin.
- Please follow the instructions (from above) and it should not happen.
- Add the command line option: –default-auth=mysql_native_password
- Read more: Connecting MySQL – 8.0 with MySQL Workbench
Error: mysqldump: Got error: 2026: SSL connection error: error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0) when trying to connect
- Add the [client] ssl-mode=DISABLED option to your my.ini file
XAMPP control panel error: MySQL shutdown unexpectedly.
- Make sure you have installed the 64-bit version of XAMPP and MySQL.
- Make sure that no other MySQL server is already running on the same port (3306).
- Try to run xampp-control.exe as administrator
- You might forgot to initialize the data directory.
- Some MySQL versions are not compatible with the XAMPP control panel.
- Try to start mysqld.exe from the console: c:\xampp\mysql\bin>mysqld.exe
- Try to delete the ibdata1 file
I can’t start or stop MySQL using the XAMPP control panel button.
- Make sure you have installed the 64-bit version of XAMPP and MySQL.