Unable to see database after upgrade from 8.0.21 to 8.0.31

[Perry Gershon]

I am running MySQL on an iMac with OS 13.0, I have very limited knowledge of MySQL and use exclusively for an email database called MailSteward. Because the size of my files are very large (over a decade of email archive) I have it contained on an external hard drive mounted as its own volume. I am no longer able to access the database at all after upgrading yesterday, although I had not successfully accessed since 2020, which is what led me to upgrade. Here is the background and the issue:

When I installed MySQL, I was running OS 10.15. I installed the data files on an external volume/partition (/Volumes/mySQLPartition/data/data). When I wanted to activate MySQL, I could not do it through the control panel preference MySQL tab but needed to do it through the command line with (sudo /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/Volumes/mySQLPartition/data/data --user=mysql). This process worked fine for a bit, I believe, about the same time I upgraded to OS 11, I lost the ability to start the MySQL and certainly I never got it to work with OS13. I believe the problem was that the datafile was on the remote volume. On the preferences tab, I had data file set to "/Volumes/mySQLPartition/data/data" instead of "/usr/local/mysql/data".

When I upgraded yesterday to MySQL 8.0.31, the MySQL server starts on the control panel page perfectly, but I cannot access the data on the external volume. And when I change the data specification on the preference page, MySQL will no longer activate, When I try to use my MailStewardPro app, it gives me an error that it is unable to connect to root@user using password YES. I believe the issue is that MacSteward pro is looking to connect to the wrong data file.

My question is how can I get MySQL started on my iMAC using the data in /Volumes/mySQLPartition/data/data (my database created with 8.0.21)? There must be something I can do, hopefully relatively simple. And sorry for the longwinded explanation.