"Something bad happened" Creating Database | Step 2

[Physiotutors]

I fail at pulling a live site from Kinsta into DevKinsta or even creating a new site from scratch

It fails at step 2 (creating the database).

I have freshly installed DevKinsta and Docker with full deinstallation and cleanup of files in the Library and User folder.

here’s my setup and process: PL2730H — Screen Studio

have looked through similar topics but to no avail. Also I see a lot of people posting their main.log file contents however I cannot locate it. My logs folder under user/DevKinsta/logs doesn’t have that file and a full finder search also doesn’t locate it.

any input is welcome

[VladimirM (Vladimir Milosavljević)]

Hello @Physiotutors Welcome to the community!

I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing this issue.

If you haven’t already, please try the following:

• Quit DevKinsta
• Delete all containers starting with devkinsta_ from Docker (make sure it’s containers, not Images or Volumes)
• Start DevKinsta again and re-attempt the pull

If that doesn’t work, please try obtaining the log file.

To get the main.log, please click on question mark on the left and then click ‘Reveal Log file in File Manager’

[Physiotutors]

Thanks. I was able to locate the log file. it reads [2025-10-15 16:21:20.116] [error] [ipcMainStep] Error in operation SITE_CREATION, step database: Error: Error (1): UERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’ (using password: YES)

how do I proceed to update the access credentials?

[Adrian_L (Adrian Lorica)]

Hi @Physiotutors

Regarding the specific error “Access denied for user ‘root’@‘localhost’,” I recommend checking the below thread for possible solutions. However, the steps can be quite technical, so it might be simpler to start with a fresh installation of DevKinsta. But before you do that, could you please confirm the following information?

DevKinsta version:
Docker Desktop version:
Computer Operating System version:

(If you’re using Windows, please confirm if you selected WSL or HyperV during the installation)

Error at creating MySQL

Thank you. Our team dig more through the main.log, it looks like the database (MariaDB) password is successfully reset on each startup. Possible that when trying to authenticate, it still tries with some old password. To continue troubleshooting, you could try to manually login to MariaDB using Docker. To do this: Open Docker Desktop while DevKinsta is running Select devkinsta_db container and attach a shell to it (see picture below) [image] In the shell, log in with mysql: mysql -u r…

[Physiotutors]

Thanks for this. I got to a similar solution with the help of ChatGPT and was able to pull the site. however at the second to last step with
[2025-10-15 21:08:42.111] [error] Error: =[31;1mError:[0m Error establishing a database connection.

at file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:2:816008

at tryCatch (file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:8:1677369)

at Generator.<anonymous> (file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:8:1679014)

at Generator.next (file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:8:1677918)

at asyncGeneratorStep (file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:8:1669659)

at \_next (file:///Applications/DevKinsta.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/renderer.prod.js:8:1669879)

at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)

[VladimirM (Vladimir Milosavljević)]

Hello Physiotutors

You stated you were able to pull the site. Which two steps don’t complete?

Can you please provide the entire main.log here? We’ll remove it from public access after downloading it.

Kind regards!

[Seyed (Seyed Meeran)]

I am facing same issue after recent devKinsta update. I removed devKinsta and Docker completely and tried again . No luck.

I’,m using Mac.

[merineth (Merineth Edullantes)]

Hi @Seyed Welcome to the community! Sorry to hear you’re running into the same issue. We’ve already passed this along to our DevKinsta development team so they can take a closer look.

I also replied to your other posts. If you could share your main.log file, that would really help us dig in and understand what’s going on. Appreciate your patience while we work on this!

[Seyed (Seyed Meeran)]

@merineth

main.lo

How to get the main log file for you.?

This happened only after recent update to devkinsta.

Also I need clear instruction how to install both devKinsta and Docker so that we can try fresh install. We already lost current development work.

[merineth (Merineth Edullantes)]

Hi @Seyed You can retrieve the main.log file by clicking on the “Reveal log file in File Manager” under the Help and Support page in DevKinsta.

In addition, can you please share the following details?
DevKinsta Version:
OS Version:
Docker Desktop Version:

You can refer to this link for instructions and guide on how to install Docker and DevKinsta.

[Seyed (Seyed Meeran)]

@merineth

DevKinsta Version:
OS Version:
Docker Desktop Version:

main.log (link removed for data security/privacy)

DevKinsta Version: Version 2.13.6 (2.13.6.9096)
OS Version: 15.7.2 (24G325) macos sequoia
Docker Desktop Version: Version 4.50.0 (209931)

[Andrew]

Hi @Seyed,

Thank you for your reply! We have reviewed the main.log file you shared and we notice that during the site creation process it appears the connection to the database service is being denied. This can indicate that for some reason the root user password is out of sync, or not set.

A fellow DevKinsta user shared a solution that worked for them. Their instructions go through the process of resetting the root password of the database container. You may find a link to their instructions below:

Something bad happened: in create new site

I know I am a bit late to the party, but just in case someone else is having trouble with this specific problem the following might be a solution: In my case the root password wasn’t set, so I just had to set it manually in docker. The following steps is how I fixed it. Open docker desktop and navigate to “Containers” Open the devkinsta_db container Navigate to the inspect tab Find the Config section Copy the root password under the config section; it should something like this: "Config": { …

Please let us know if resetting the database’s root user password helps resolve the issue, and allows the site creation process to complete.

If you do have any questions please let us know! We look forward to hearing from you!

[Seyed (Seyed Meeran)]

This resolves the mariadb error. Now the new wordpress sites not creating successfully.

only the wordpress installation files are added the public folder.
wp-admin/setup-config.php

[VladimirM (Vladimir Milosavljević)]

Thank you for writing back!

You will need to grant permissions to the root user to have access from any host.

Please execute the following commands from the Terminal one by one:

1. docker exec -it devkinsta_db bash

2. mysql -u root -p

(enter the password you created)

3. GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO ‘root’@‘%’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘the password you created’ WITH GRANT OPTION;

4. exit

5. exit

Let me know if that resolves the error, if not, you might need to manually update config.json, and I’ll give you the steps.

[Seyed (Seyed Meeran)]

Previous step atleast created the site but not installed wordpress.

After following the new steps you sent, we got the same issue, struck in step 2 creating DB.

[VladimirM (Vladimir Milosavljević)]

Thanks for writing back!

Part three - **UPDATING DevKinsta config.json
**

If you completed both sets of steps above and there was no change and the issue persists, you will need to check the password in config.json file.

Go to Finder → Go → Library → Application Support → DevKinsta. (If you don’t have ‘Library’ in Go (top bar), go to Finder, control-click anywhere in the directory and in Show View Options select “Show Library Folder”)

Once you are in DevKinsta directory, find config.json. Open it in any text editor that has ‘search’ feature. Search for ‘services’ and you should see a code like this:

image450×210 41 KB

Update that to a password that you have set when you performend previous steps.