I’ve got a .sql dump file that I exported from phpMyAdmin and need to load it into MySQL on another machine using command line tools. I’m working on a Windows Server system and put my SQL file in the root directory. When I try running this command:
database_name < backup.sql
I keep getting syntax errors and it won’t work. I’m pretty new to MySQL command line stuff so I might be missing something basic here. Should I be creating an empty database first before trying to import? What’s the proper syntax to get this working without errors?
Same issue here when I migrated databases between servers. You’re not calling the mysql client right. Beyond fixing the syntax like others said, check if MySQL is actually running first - hit services.msc on Windows Server since it sometimes stops after restarts. Character encoding from phpMyAdmin dumps screwed me over too. If you’re still getting errors after fixing the command, add --default-character-set=utf8 to your mysql command. Oh, and if your backup.sql has CREATE DATABASE statements, you’ll get conflicts if the database already exists.
yeah, others nailed it. if you’re still gettin weird errors, cd to where your .sql file actually lives first - file paths get messed up sometimes. also make sure mysql is actually running on the target machine. i once spent way too long troubleshootin when mysql wasn’t even started lol
You need to connect to MySQL first before importing. Open command prompt, go to your MySQL bin directory, then run mysql -u username -p database_name < backup.sql (replace ‘username’ with your actual MySQL username). It’ll ask for your password. Make sure the target database exists first - if not, create it with mysql -u username -p -e "CREATE DATABASE database_name;". Also check that your backup.sql file path is correct from where you’re running the command. This should fix those syntax errors you’re getting.
Your syntax is missing the actual mysql command and connection details. You need the full mysql client command: mysql -u your_username -p your_database_name < backup.sql. First, navigate to your MySQL bin folder (usually C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin) or add it to your PATH. And yes, you’ve got to create the target database first if it doesn’t exist. I wasted hours on this when I started - kept troubleshooting until I realized I was importing into a database that didn’t exist. Run the command from wherever your backup.sql file is, or give the full path to the file.
First, make sure MySQL is actually running - that got me once. The command structure is right, but I’d specify the full path to your backup.sql file to avoid directory headaches. Something like mysql -u username -p database_name < C:\path\to\backup.sql works better. If your SQL dump is huge, the import takes forever with no progress bar, so don’t freak out if it looks frozen. I test with a small dummy database first to check the connection before importing real data.