Re: AWS Ubuntu / MariaDB / MySQL can't view tables but data looks like it's there

[Herrick Peterson]

The fact that the database directory and large data files are still present is a good indication that the files haven't simply disappeared, but it doesn't necessarily mean the tables are currently accessible. InnoDB tables depend on MySQL/MariaDB's internal metadata and tablespaces as well.

I would avoid manually moving, deleting, or recreating those files for now.

First check whether the database service is running: sudo systemctl status mysql

or, if you're using MariaDB: sudo systemctl status mariadb

Then check the recent error messages: sudo journalctl -u mariadb -n 100 --no-pager

and try a local login: sudo mysql

If you can connect, run:

SHOW DATABASES;
SHOW TABLES FROM your_database;

The exact error from the MySQL/MariaDB log and the authentication error would be useful here. Those will help determine whether this is an authentication issue, InnoDB/tablespace problem, permissions issue, or something else before attempting any recovery.

Herrick, DevOps Engineer @Accuweb.cloud