title: How to fix: MySQL can not start: Error "another mysqld server running on port: 3306?" - checked port and it is FREE
body: <p>I have encountered a strange error with MySQL service. I can not start it due to the problem related to ports. I have checked my error logs:</p>
  <pre><code>2021-03-18T10:02:22.507114Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010262] [Server] Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: Cannot assign requested address
  2021-03-18T10:02:22.507246Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010257] [Server] Do you already have another mysqld server running on port: 3306 ?
  2021-03-18T10:02:22.508080Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
  </code></pre>
  <p>I have checked some other threads on StackOverflow about this issue, so I decided to try the solutions.</p>
  <ul>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9918062/another-mysqld-server-running-on-port-3306-error">Another mysqld server running on port 3306 error</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60537511/do-you-already-have-another-mysqld-server-running-on-port-3306-ubuntu">Do you already have another mysqld server running on port: 3306 Ubuntu</a></li>
  <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51467371/mysql-port-already-in-use">Mysql port already in use</a></li>
  </ul>
  <p>I checked all my ports with:</p>
  <pre><code>netstat -tulpn
  Active Internet connections (servers and established)
  Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State       PID/Program name
  tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:12526           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      485/sshd
  tcp        0    232 172.16.2.34:12526       10.200.0.62:62217       ESTABLISHED 898/sshd: sop [priv
  tcp6       0      0 :::80                   :::*                    LISTEN      547/apache2
  </code></pre>
  <p>As you can see, there is nothing associated with port 3306.
  To be sure, I checked that with:</p>
  <pre><code>lsof -i TCP:3306
  </code></pre>
  <p>I decided to try changing the port that MySQL uses. I opened the configuration file and changed the port to the different one that FOR SURE must be free (again, I checked that).</p>
  <pre><code>port = 6606
  </code></pre>
  <p>Unfortunately, it only resulted into changed error log:</p>
  <pre><code>2021-03-18T10:22:22.507114Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010262] [Server] Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: Cannot assign requested address
  2021-03-18T10:22:22.507246Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010257] [Server] Do you already have another mysqld server running on port: 6606 ?
  2021-03-18T12:02:22.508080Z 0 [ERROR] [MY-010119] [Server] Aborting
  </code></pre>
  <p>All solutions I have seen, require to kill the program that occupy the port, but how do I am supposed to do so when there is no such program? What else can I consider? I wonder if I will just end up with reinstalling MySQL, because I have no idea what to do with this error...</p>
  <p>I would like to admit that MySQL has worked very well so far, and I cannot pinpoint why it suddenly stopped working properly. No significant changes have been made to the system. No services were installed that could started to use ports that MySQL wants to use.</p>
  <p>I use MySQL on Linux Debian 10.</p>
  <p>Thank you in advance for all your help and time. :)</p>