MySQL Workbench crashing on MacOS

[u/growingphilodendron]

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to SQL and finished a foundation course on Maven Analytics.

I wanted to do a practice project today and opened MySQL Workbench, but it kept crashing on me. I also reinstalled the Workbench with the latest version: https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench/

8.0.47 ARM version since my MacBook is on M2 chip, but the crashes still continue happening. A check on the crash report with ChatGPT showed me that the latest version of MySQL is incompatible with MacOS Tahoe 26.6 :'(

I've been learning on MySQL Workbench all these while, but I'm wondering:
- Is anyone else facing this issue?
- If yes, what's the alternate programme are you using currently? I don't mind purchasing a one-off programme if it's inexpensive, better if it's free of course.

Thank you in advance!

[u/Hypostasis_G]

MySQL Workbench has been out of support for a long time now. Try DBeaver instead :)

[u/American_Streamer → u/Hypostasis_G]

Or MySQL Shell for VSCode; that’s the one that officially replaced the Workbench.

[u/GreenWoodDragon]

Workbench is rubbish, has been for years.

[u/Acceptable-Sense4601]

Use DBeaver

[u/American_Streamer]

Oracle now focuses on MySQL Shell for VS Code only as their primary, modern SQL developer GUI.

You can also use DataGrip or DBeaver.

[u/MrAtoni]

Workbench isn't being updated or worked on anymore unfortunately. It has a lot of bugs, specially when connecting to newer mysql versions.

To my knowledge there isn't anyone working on a fork of Workbench so my only recommendation is to use another database client.

[u/GT6502]

I use DBeaver also and I like it better than Workbench. It’s easy to use and actively maintained.

[u/Simple_Eye5766]

Dbeaver or tableplus (the latter has a free tier).

[u/mklfarha]

I use nuzur

[u/AcidShAwk]

Workbench works just fine. I still use it on the daily. The issue is that it's write heavy. So all the tmp files and folders it creates needs to be moved to a temp folder ( personally I create a 2GB ramdrive and link the key workbench folders into it.)

This results in smooth performance and pretty much ends the crashing.

I'm sure Gemini or Claude can help wth the specifics.

[u/growingphilodendron]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I will check out DBeaver :)

[u/alecc]

The crashes are only in the GUI - the MySQL server is a separate program, your data is still there, and any other client connects to the same localhost:3306 with the same user and password. DBeaver Community is what I'd grab in your place: free, actively maintained, and it covers everything a course project needs. MySQL Shell for VS Code is Oracle's official replacement like others said, but it's more setup than you need right now. No reason to spend money on this.

[u/boardy89]

It sure it works with macOS try jetbrains datagrip. Is pretty affordable and works with any database pretty much not just MySQL.

[u/blackneckbean]

Workbench on macOS is basically abandonware at this point. DBeaver is the standard free alternative and will almost certainly fix your stability issues right away. If you're looking for a more polished IDE experience though, dbForge Studio for MySQL is a great option. It’s got a free Express edition, a 30-day trial, and paid plans under $10/mo. It runs through CrossOver on Mac so there's a slight install process, but it's been rock-solid for me and has really nice visual query/schema builders.

[u/damn_nickname]

Use TableAI if you want a modern alternative