MySQL Data Connection for VS 2022 / MySQL for Visual Studio Setup Wizard ended prematurely

[Sean M]

After quite some time I am coming back to update our database. I'm trying to get MySQL Database to show up in the Visual Studio Add Data Connections dropdown. This has never been very easy but after spending all day on it I fear I cannot continue.

Googling issues with MySQL not being in the Data Connections dropdown shows a lot of answers, I've tried a lot of them but am not even sure which versions of MySQL Server, MySQL .NET Connector, and MySQL for Visual Studio are supposed to be used together for Visual Studio 2022. I have MySql.Data and MySql.Data.EntityFramework nuget packages installed in my project.

Taking inspiration from this answer, on my latest attempt, I:

Remove all MySQL programs with Revo Uninstaller

Run MySQL Community Installer 8.0.34 from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/installer/

-Install MySQL Server 8.0.34-X64

Install MySQL Connector/NET 8.0.33.1 from https://downloads.mysql.com/archives/c-net/

Install MySQL for Visual Studio 1.2.10 from https://downloads.mysql.com/archives/visualstudio/

But still no MySQL Database in Add Data Connections. I fear the MySQL for Visual Studio plugin may be the cause of this, as anything later than 1.2.10 (2.0.2. m1 - 2.0.5 m4) fails with "MySQL for Visual Studio Setup Wizard ended prematurely".

Any help would be appreciated, and what could be really helpful from anyone who has this working is what versions of these do you have?