database authentication_error ai_generated true

psycopg2.OperationalError: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "myuser"

ID: database/authentication-failed

Also available as: JSON · Markdown
92%Fix Rate
94%Confidence
72Evidence
2023-01-01First Seen

Version Compatibility

VersionStatusIntroducedDeprecatedNotes
16 active — — —

Root Cause

PostgreSQL rejects the supplied credentials. Typically caused by wrong password, missing user, or pg_hba.conf authentication method mismatch.

generic

Workarounds

  1. 94% success Reset the user password in PostgreSQL and update the application configuration 
    Connect as superuser (sudo -u postgres psql) and run: ALTER USER myuser WITH PASSWORD 'newpassword'; Then update the application's database connection string with the new password.
  2. 88% success Check and fix pg_hba.conf authentication method 
    Inspect pg_hba.conf for the relevant connection type (local/host). Ensure the auth method matches expectations (scram-sha-256 for production, or trust for local dev). Note: PostgreSQL 16 defaults to scram-sha-256; md5 is deprecated. Reload with 'SELECT pg_reload_conf();' or 'systemctl reload postgresql'.

Dead Ends

Common approaches that don't work:

  1. Repeatedly retrying the same credentials hoping for a different result 99% fail

    PostgreSQL authentication is deterministic. The same wrong password will always fail. Retrying wastes time and may trigger connection rate limiting.

  2. Changing the client driver version to fix authentication failures 92% fail

    The authentication failure is server-side credential validation. Switching between psycopg2, asyncpg, or other drivers does not change the password check.

Error Chain

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Preceded by:
Frequently confused with: