EXIT; Step 4.1: Kill the Maintenance Server Go back to the first CMD window (the frozen one) and press CTRL + C . This stops the --skip-grant-tables server.
Do not simply stop it; we need to prevent it from auto-restarting.
net stop MySQL80 Critical check: Open services.msc and confirm the status is "Stopped." If it hangs on "Stopping," kill the process via Task Manager ( mysqld.exe ). Standard mysqld requires a password. We will launch a special "maintenance" version that skips the grant tables (where users/passwords live).