Unable to Start Confluence Due to MySQL Driver

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Symptoms

Confluence fails to start. The catalina.out log contains a message like:

1 2 3 INFO: Server startup in 118965 ms Cannot load JDBC driver class 'com.mysql.jdbc.Driver' java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

Cause

The MySQL Driver is not in place.

Resolution

For MySQL, please see the complete list of steps to download and install the JDBC driver in this page.

Updated on April 8, 2025

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