Restore MySQL tables with data folder only? I have many MySQL databases with many tables and I’m trying to figure out if I can restore all of it only using the content of my MySQL data folder.

Or should I just not bother and use the following instead?

mysqldump --all-databases &gt; db_backup.sql
You cannot move a single table or database around via the filesystem.

If you have the entire folder, then there is a pretty good chance of being able to move (or restore) all databases.


ibdata1 must be included
Same version of MySQL.
directory and file permissions need to be maintained
and probably other things.