---
slug: "docker-alpine-djangodbutilsoperationalerror-2000-unknown-mysql-error"
title: "Starting Django on Docker Alpine Results in django.db.utils.OperationalError: (2000, 'Unknown MySQL error')"
description: "When running `python3 ./manage.py runserver 8080`, I encountered the error `django.db.utils.OperationalError: (2000, 'Unknown MySQL error')`. This error occurs when the `OPTIONS` setting includes `'charset': 'utf8mb4'`."
url: "https://www.ytyng.com/en/blog/docker-alpine-djangodbutilsoperationalerror-2000-unknown-mysql-error"
publish_date: "2020-09-13T06:57:54Z"
created: "2020-09-13T06:57:54Z"
updated: "2026-02-27T07:14:12.610Z"
categories: ["Django"]
keywords: ""
featured_image_url: "https://media.ytyng.com/resize/20230812/e7d6040425d6499987d4af70ff93c641.png.webp?width=768"
has_video: false
has_music: false
video_urls: []
music_urls: []
lang: "en"
---

# Starting Django on Docker Alpine Results in django.db.utils.OperationalError: (2000, 'Unknown MySQL error')

<p>Alpine 3.12, django 3.1, mysqlclient 2.0.1</p>
<p>When running python3 ./manage.py runserver 8080,</p>
<p></p>
<pre> File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/db/backends/utils.py", line 84, in _execute<br /> return self.cursor.execute(sql, params)<br /> File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 73, in execute<br /> return self.cursor.execute(query, args)<br /> File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 206, in execute<br /> res = self._query(query)<br /> File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/MySQLdb/cursors.py", line 319, in _query<br /> db.query(q)<br /> File "/usr/lib/python3.8/site-packages/MySQLdb/connections.py", line 259, in query<br /> _mysql.connection.query(self, query)<br />django.db.utils.OperationalError: (2000, 'Unknown MySQL error')</pre>
<p>The above error occurred.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The settings are</p>
<pre>DATABASES = {<br />  'default': {<br />　　  'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',<br />  　　'NAME': '*****',<br /> 　　 'USER': '*****',<br />  　　'PASSWORD': '*****',<br /> 　　 'HOST': '*****',<br />  　　'PORT': '3306',<br />  　　'OPTIONS': {<br />    　　'charset': 'utf8mb4',<br />  　　},<br />  },<br />}<br /><br /></pre>
<p>With this configuration,<br /><br />the error (2000, 'Unknown MySQL error') occurs when 'charset': 'utf8mb4' is included in the OPTIONS.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When this setting is removed or changed to utf8, the error does not occur.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The detailed cause is unknown.</p>