[mysql] Mysql 1050 Error "Table already exists" when in fact, it does not

I'm adding this table:

CREATE TABLE contenttype (
        contenttypeid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
        class VARBINARY(50) NOT NULL,
        packageid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
        canplace ENUM('0','1') NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
        cansearch ENUM('0','1') NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
        cantag ENUM('0','1') DEFAULT '0',
        canattach ENUM('0','1') DEFAULT '0',
        isaggregator ENUM('0', '1') NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
        PRIMARY KEY (contenttypeid),
        UNIQUE KEY packageclass (packageid, class)
);

And I get a 1050 "table already exists"

But the table does NOT exist. Any ideas?

EDIT: more details because everyone seems to not believe me :)

DESCRIBE contenttype

yields:

1146 - Table 'gunzfact_vbforumdb.contenttype' doesn't exist

and

CREATE TABLE gunzfact_vbforumdb.contenttype(
contenttypeid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,
class VARBINARY( 50 ) NOT NULL ,
packageid INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL ,
canplace ENUM( '0', '1' ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
cansearch ENUM( '0', '1' ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
cantag ENUM( '0', '1' ) DEFAULT '0',
canattach ENUM( '0', '1' ) DEFAULT '0',
isaggregator ENUM( '0', '1' ) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
PRIMARY KEY ( contenttypeid ) ,

Yields:

1050 - Table 'contenttype' already exists

Was trying to import a backup sql file but was getting the error; 1050 "Table already exists"

My setup was:

• Windows 7
• Mysql 5.5.16

Solution:

1. Changed the server engine from InnoDB to MyISAM
2. Using phpMyAdmin Deleted the database I was trying to import to
3. Restarted the mysql service
4. Tried the re-importation and it worked

gosh, i had the same problem with osCommerce install script until i figured out the mysql system has many databases and the create table query copies itself into each one and thus droping only the working table on active db didnt help, i had to drop the table from all dbs

In my case I found this to be an issue with InnoDB; I never discovered what the actual problem was, but creating as a MyISAM allowed it to build

I was having huge issues with Error 1050 and 150.

The problem, for me was that I was trying to add a constraint with ON DELETE SET NULL as one of the conditions.

Changing to ON DELETE NO ACTION allowed me to add the required FK constraints.

Unfortunately the MySql error messages are utterly unhelpful so I had to find this solution iteratively and with the help of the answers to the question above.

I am struggling with the same issue. I cannot create a table, even though it does not exist. I tried all the above solutions with no success.

My solution was to delete the files ib_logfil0, ib_logfile1, ibdata1, and auto.cnf from the data folder of MySQL; make sure to stop the MySQL service first before deleting these files.

Then after restarting the service, MySQL recreated these files and I was able to run a backup script were all my CREATEs were stored (a sqldump file).

I've just had the same error but I knew the table already existed and wanted to add to it. I'm adding my answer as this question comes up as no.1 for me on google when looking for the same error but for a slightly different scenario. Basically I needed to tick

"Add DROP TABLE / VIEW / PROCEDURE / FUNCTION / EVENT / TRIGGER statement"

And this solved the error for me.

This problem also occurs if a 'view' (imaginary table) exists in database as same name as our new table name.

I had this problem on Win7 in Sql Maestro for MySql 12.3. Enormously irritating, a show stopper in fact. Nothing helped, not even dropping and recreating the database. I have this same setup on XP and it works there, so after reading your answers about permissions I realized that it must be Win7 permissions related. So I ran MySql as administrator and even though Sql Maestro was run normally, the error disappeared. So it must have been a permissions issue between Win7 and MySql.

You won´t believe me! I´ve just removed a comment block from my .sql file and now it works.

CREATE DATABASE  IF NOT EXISTS `issga` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 */;
USE `issga`;
--
-- Table structure for table `protocolo`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS protocolo;
/*!40101 SET @saved_cs_client     = @@character_set_client */;
/*!40101 SET character_set_client = utf8 */;
 CREATE TABLE protocolo (
  `idProtocolo` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `tipo` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL,
  `estado` int(2) DEFAULT 0,
  PRIMARY KEY (`idProtocolo`)
 ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=142 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
 /*!40101 SET character_set_client = @saved_cs_client */;

--
-- Dumping data for table `protocolo`
--

LOCK TABLES protocolo WRITE;
/*!40000 ALTER TABLE protocolo DISABLE KEYS */;
/* INSERT INTO `protocolo` VALUES () */
/*!40000 ALTER TABLE protocolo ENABLE KEYS */;
UNLOCK TABLES;

The deleted comment block was this:

--
-- Table structure for table `protocolo`
-- 

I´ve left the problematic table alone in the same .sql file. After that I´ve removed comments, the only code was left, and the error disappears.

from MySQL Log:

InnoDB: You can drop the orphaned table inside InnoDB by
InnoDB: creating an InnoDB table with the same name in another
InnoDB: database and copying the .frm file to the current database.
InnoDB: Then MySQL thinks the table exists, and DROP TABLE will
InnoDB: succeed.

Encountering the same problem (create InnoDB table) this is what finally worked for me:

DROP DATABASE `having_issues`;

I checked on a file basis, permissions, tried to REPAIR and FLUSH but nothing worked.

So if this is an option, move all working tables to another DATABASE, drop the old one (you might have to manually remove any files from the database folder before the drop to work), rename the new one, and you 'should' be back on your way. Apparently, whatever gets 'cached' using InnoDB is dropped along with the original database.

I had this same case. The problem ended up being permissions on the parent directory.

I had been copying files in and out of mysql during testing.

drwx------   3 _mysql  wheel 

was not enough, needed to be:

-rw-rw----   3 _mysql  wheel 

Sorry to resurrect.

I had the same problem at Mac OS X and MySQL 5.1.40. I used eclipse to edit my SQL script and than I tried MySQLWorkbench 5.2.28. Probably it converted newline characters to Mac format. I had no idea about what's wrong with my script until I commented out the first line in file. After this this script was interpreted by mysql as a one single comment. I used build-in TextEdit Mac application to fix this. After line-breaks was converted to the correct format, the error 1050 gone.

Update for Eclipse users:

To set up default ending for new files created, across the entire workspace:

Window -> Preferences -> General -> Workspace -> New text file line delimiter.

To convert existing files, open file for editing and for the currently edited file, go to the menu:

File -> Convert Line Delimiters To

I had this same problem and it looks like the Database name was case sensitive. My Database is called:

Mydatabase

Whilst my script included

USE mydatabase

Once I changed the database name to the correct case it all seemed to work. Using MYSQL Workbench on MAC OSX

First check if you are in the right database USE yourDB and try Select * from contenttype just to see what is it and if it exists really...

I've been fighting with this all day: I have a Perl script that builds a set of tables by first doing a DROP IF EXISTS ... on them and then CREATEing them. The DROP succeeded, but on CREATE I got this error message: table already exists

I finally got to the bottom of it: The new version of MySQL that I'm using has a default engine of InnoDB ("show engine \G;") I changed it in the my.cnf file to default to MyISAM, re-started MySQL, and now I no longer get the "table already exists" error.

For me the problem was caused when using a filesystem copy of the mysql database directory instead of mysqldump. I have some very large tables, mostly MyISAM and a few InnoDB cache tables and it is not practical to mysqldump the data. Since we are still running MyISAM, XtraBackup is not an option.

The same symptoms as above happened to me. The table is not there, there are no files in the directory that pertain to the table, yet it cannot be created because MySQL thinks its there. Drop table says it's not there, create table says it is.

The problem occurred on two machines, both were fixed by copying backups. However, I noticed that in my backup that there was a .MYD and .MYI file, even though I was under the impression that these files are not used for InnoDB. The .MYD and .MYI files had an owner of root, while the .frm was owned by mysql.

If you copy from backup, check the file permissions. Flush tables might work, but I opted to shut down and restart the database.

Good luck.

I also encountered this problem where trying to Create a table said it already exists and Dropping the table said it didn't exist.

I did "FLUSH TABLES" and it cleared the problem.

You may need to flush the table cache. For example:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `tablename` ;
FLUSH TABLES `tablename` ; /* or exclude `tablename` to flush all tables */
CREATE TABLE `tablename` ...

Same problem occurred with me while creating a view. The view was present earlier then due to some changes it got removed But when I tried to add it again it was showing me "view already exists" error message.

Solution:

You can do one thing manually.

1. Go to the MySQL folder where you have installed it
2. Go to the data folder inside it.
3. Choose your database and go inside it.
4. Data base creates ".frm" format files.
5. delete the particular table's file.
6. Now create the table again.

It will create the table successfully.

I got this same error, and REPAIR TABLE (from @NullUserException's answer) didn't help.

I eventually found this solution:

sudo mysqladmin flush-tables

For me, without the sudo, I got the following error:

mysqladmin: refresh failed; error: 'Access denied; you need the RELOAD privilege for this operation'

(Running on OS X 10.6)

Your disk also might just be full. (just had that)

In my case the problem was that there was a view with the same name as my table, so I had to drop the view to allow the import to continue.

drop view `my-view-that-has-same-name-as-table`;

An automated solution that worked for me is to replace the normal drop table with this sed during the dump to also drop any views that might exist:

mysqldump my-db \
| sed -E 's/^DROP TABLE IF EXISTS(.+)$/\0 DROP VIEW IF EXISTS\1/g' \
| mysql my-other-db

Or if you would rather print to a file for backup

mysqldump my-db \
| sed -E 's/^DROP TABLE IF EXISTS(.+)$/\0 DROP VIEW IF EXISTS\1/g' \
> my-db.dump.sql

Or if you received the dumped file and you are importing it to your db

cat my-db.dump.sql \
| sed -E 's/^DROP TABLE IF EXISTS(.+)$/\0 DROP VIEW IF EXISTS\1/g' \
| mysql my-other-db

You get the idea

Note: it is important that you add the ^ at the beginning of the replacement regex, because there are other types of DROP TABLE IF EXISTS commands in dumps that you don't want to touch.

You go from having something like this:

--
-- Table structure for table `my_table`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `my_table`;
/*!40101 SET @saved_cs_client     = @@character_set_client */;
/*!40101 SET character_set_client = utf8 */;
CREATE TABLE `my_table` (
...

To having something like this:

--
-- Table structure for table `my_table`
--

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `my_table`; DROP VIEW IF EXISTS `my_table`;
/*!40101 SET @saved_cs_client     = @@character_set_client */;
/*!40101 SET character_set_client = utf8 */;
CREATE TABLE `my_table` (
...

My CREATE statement was part of staging env dump.

I did try everything that has been mentioned above. I DID NOT get solution. However my path to redemption was:

1. I stumble upon the fact that (one of many in) the CREATE statement did get through when I rectified the database name case sensitivity. This clicked something. I repeated the same for the other tables.

2. However a new error came into the scene. The straight quotes for 'comments' were throwing syntax error. I was shocked. replaced them but the new error started popping up. Finally i knew the solution.

SOLUTION: The dump i was using might have been from a different version of MySql. I got permission to connect to the staging MYsql using the local(installed on my machine) mysql workbench. I did not rdp into the staging server to login to staging mysql workbench. Created a dump from there. Ran the dump and it worked like a sweet.