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I have worked many hours over several days trying to get MySQL working with Mac OS X, Python (I've tried both 2.7 and 3.3), and Django 1.6.

This topic is addressed on many webpages, both in SO and elsewhere, and over a period of many years (one solution specifically uses MySQLdb 1.2.2, which was last modified in March 2007). Some of the posts seem to say they have it working, but when I try their solution, it doesn't work for me. On the other hand, one post from a few months ago flatly says it can't be done.

The heart of the problem seems to be installing a driver (whether MySQLdb or mysql-connector), and symptoms vary depending on which instructions you follow. Typical show-stoppers from the various attempted solutions have been "No module named 'MySQLdb'" and "Symbol not found: _mysql_affected_rows" when you finally try "python manage.py syncdb".

One wonders whether the very act of trying so many solutions has itself messed up my dev environment so that what would have worked with a clean slate won't work now. Yes, I've tried this both with and without virtualenv. I don't know whether virtualenv has gotten me closer or not, because I don't know how to recognize getting closer.

I happen to have OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) and MySQL 5.0 on my machine. Those are not the latest versions of either, but I don't know whether that matters and I'm reluctant to keep changing things. They work fine for other MySQL applications on my machine. I'll gladly upgrade either or both if a solution is available for later versions.

Does anyone actually have the configuration listed as the title of this post working, with either Python 2.7 or 3.3? If so, I'd be most grateful if you'd direct me to the solution.

UPDATE

I just wanted to let readers know that I eventually did get my app running with Python 3.3, Django 1.6, and sort-of MySQL. My app has been running smoothly for months.

I'm sorry, I don't have the time to recreate the many hours of steps and mis-steps I followed to get this working. I'll just outline the key points:

  • I started using Macs more than a decade ago, starting with PowerBooks, so my Mac has a lot of old stuff on it. The first thing I finally decided I had to do was to get rid of every copy of Python and Django; installers such as MacPorts and Fink; and any of the directories they like to put their installations into. Google was of course invaluable to me in learning how to do this, and all the other steps mentioned below.

  • I then started fresh (as much as I could give my Mac a fresh start) using Homebrew as my only command-line installer.

  • I also used virtualenv. I don't actually understand virtualenv very well, and again don't have the time to research it, but I've got it working and it does seem to be a good idea.

  • Well, within virtualenv, I also used pip, which I guess is also a command-line installer, but it seems to be part of the Homebrew/virtualenv methodology. Sorry I can't provide any expertise on this.

  • As I mentioned, the app sort-of worked with MySQL, but when I used Homebrew to uninstall MySQL, and install MariaDB instead, it started to work really well. As far as I can tell, Django, Sequel Pro, PyCharm's DB features, and other programs that think they're talking to MySQL can't tell the difference between MySQL and MariaDB. I also really like the MariaDB online documentation. Admittedly, "MariaDB" isn't a great name, but neither is "MySQL".

Bottom line: If someone tells you it's impossible to get Python3.3 and Django1.6 running with MySQL (or at least MariaDB) on a Mac, don't believe them. It can be done, it's just hard to do if your system has a lot of legacy files and apps that can get into conflict with what you're trying to do.

One more thing: When I started work on this project, I suspended my work on a GAE app I'd been making great progress on for over a year. Since I'll be going back to that project soon, I wanted to keep my GAE install up-to-date on my machine, but sadly, I can no longer run the GAE installer for updates. I get some error about not being able to find python2.5. Sigh. That's what I'll have to look forward to solving when I get back to working on that project.

Lindsay
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  • Are you using a virtualenv and do you have MySQL-python installed? You may also want to try this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/5054267/1637351 – schillingt Feb 15 '14 at 02:23
  • What specific problem occurred with using MySQL Connector/Python? There is a bug which is getting fixed and released soon for Django 1.6, but if other things come up, don't hesitate to report. – geertjanvdk Feb 15 '14 at 08:06

2 Answers2

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You could try using the pure-python pymysql:

sudo easy_install pymysql

(Use pip if you have it installed.) Then, add this before execute_from_command_line in manage.py:

try:
    import pymysql
    pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
except ImportError:
    pass
Collin Anderson
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I feel your struggle. I went through the same thing and found the setup process very frustrating. I don't really know which instructions you follow on which website that is throwing exceptions. But I find that all these instructions are missing either one or two small prerequisites. For example, xcode and command-line tools needed to be installed before doing any pip install. For the connectors, if you are using mysql-python, you probably need to install python-devel. I used this instruction. You are probably right that with so many installation attempts your system is probably corrupt and you might need to re-install your osx and start clean, again. It's painful, but that's what I had to do to make it work. I hope your next attempt works.

Community
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vt2424253
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  • I up your questions because I thought it was pretty useful that you share your it and no doubt there are others who probably find it useful, too. – vt2424253 Apr 07 '14 at 19:37