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Database New Added 9 September 2026

MySQL: Table 'db.Users' doesn't exist

On Linux, table names are case sensitive because they are filenames, while macOS and Windows are not. Code that writes Users against a schema that created users therefore works everywhere except production. lower_case_table_names is fixed when the data directory is initialised, so it cannot be changed on a running server.

Quick fix

Read the commands before running them. Anything that restarts a service, deletes data or changes permissions should be tried on a non-production system first.

Quick fix
-- What does this server actually do?
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'lower_case_table_names';
SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables
 WHERE table_schema = DATABASE();

-- Rename to the case the code uses
RENAME TABLE users TO Users;

# Or initialise a new data directory that folds case (MySQL 8.0 and later)
mysqld --initialize --lower-case-table-names=1

# ORMs choose the case for you, so pin it rather than inheriting it
# Rails, Django and Laravel all default to lower case snake_case names

# Long term, keep every identifier lower case and stop depending on the host

How to diagnose Database errors

Database errors group into connection exhaustion, lock contention and deadlocks, constraint violations, and resource limits. Connection errors under load are the most misdiagnosed: "too many connections" is almost never fixed by raising max_connections, because each connection costs memory. It is fixed by putting a pooler in front and finding the code path that leaks connections.

If the quick fix above does not resolve it, work through these steps. They apply to this whole class of error, not just to this one message, which is usually what saves the time.

  1. Look at what the server currently sees: SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity in PostgreSQL, SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST in MySQL. Sessions sitting in idle in transaction are the usual culprit behind connection exhaustion.
  2. For deadlocks, read the deadlock report the database logs. It names both transactions and the exact lock order. The fix is nearly always to make all code paths acquire locks in the same order.
  3. Check whether the error is from the database or from a pooler. PgBouncer, ProxySQL and RDS Proxy return their own errors that look database-native but need pooler-side fixes.
  4. Run EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS) on slow queries. Lock-wait timeouts are often just very slow queries holding locks longer than they should.
  5. Verify you are connected to the writer, not a read replica. READONLY and "cannot execute in a read-only transaction" errors mean traffic is reaching the wrong endpoint.

Tools worth reaching for

  • pg_stat_activity
  • SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS
  • EXPLAIN ANALYZE
  • slow query log
  • pgbadger

Authoritative references

Primary documentation for this error, worth reading before applying any fix in production.

dev.mysql.com

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Something missing or wrong?

This entry is maintained by hand. If the fix is out of date, incomplete, or you have a better one, email a correction and it will be reviewed.