If you're using Maven, add this to your pom.xml:

(Recommended) For MySQL 5.6, 5.7, 8.x and Java >= 8 use;

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-j</artifactId>
    <version>8.0.33</version>
</dependency>

(Legacy) For MySQL <= 5.5 or Java <= 7 or JDBC < 4.2 use;

<dependency>
    <groupId>mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    <version>5.1.49</version>
</dependency>

More details on Connector/J versions

It might be that you are using the deprecated driver class name. I solved it by updating the property in application.properties file.

spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver

Just confirm the following things.

1. If you are under proxy make sure use VPN to connect to internal servers, iif you are accessing DEV/STG servers

2. Make sure you add the following dependency inside correct location, like this

   <dependencies> <--- inside this section <dependency> <groupId>mysql</groupId> <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId> <version>8.0.15</version> </dependency> </dependencies>

and Not in

`<build> <--- Not this section
<dependencies>
<dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        <version>8.0.15</version>
</dependency>

` 3. And you don't need to use the following line

`spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver. 

The spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://xxxxx` automatically know which driver to fetch.

If you are using IDEA and maven, you might forget reloading all maven projects, which causes the dependencies don't have the MySQL connector jar. And that's why when u run the application, there will be the error remind "com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver".

The crux of the problem is that you're missing MySQL driver dependency.

One of the ways, as outlined by other answers, is to specify it in your build tool's configuration. However, if you do not want to do it and are using IntelliJ IDEA (though I'm pretty sure Eclipse has something similar), you can also add the dependency via it. Steps:

1. Download desired jar from maven repository
2. Open your project in Intellij IDEA
3. File -> Project Structure -> Libraries
4. Click New Project Library (green plus sign on the left), or press Alt + Insert keys
5. Select Java
6. Select your jar
7. Press OK

Should look something like this:

Now you should be able to use the dependency you have just added.

Tested with IntelliJ IDEA 2017.3.4.

I will share more causes of this error:

• I already seen this error many times using Intellij IDEA and running some integration test. The test fail with the message: Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot load driver class: org.h2.Driver. After rebuild the project (Build > Rebuild Project) the error disappears.
• Another cause of this error is a corrupted JAR. A college was receiving this error (also trying to run integration tests) and, after delete some related jars on .m2 directory, the error was gone.

build.gradle

runtimeOnly 'mysql:mysql-connector-java'

application.yml

spring: 
    application:
        name: apevent
        version: 1.0
    datasource:
        driverClassName: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
        url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/applicaiton

Probably someone still needs an answer (as me before) I solved it by adding the following dependency

<dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

I encountered the same problem now and solved it after providing the required dependency,

 <!--  -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        <version>8.0.15</version>
    </dependency>

adding the following dependency solved my issue

    <dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    </dependency>

I know this might be a little late but maybe anyone from the future might find this answer helpful. This problem arises from potentially three reasons

• Incorrect maven or Gradle configuration

• Incorrect spring configuration in the application.properties file

• Wrong class name on the application.properties file.

• To troubleshoot if you are using maven. do not include the version name. This mostly is a recipe for problems, especially in huge applications. use maven autocompletes features to save you a little time.

• configure the data source correctly. There are a lot of answers on it to this question. make sure it's correct. sometimes there is a cj that is missing or included where it's not supposed to be. Trial and error might help you discover the problem

if neither of the above options works. Remove spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.jdbc.driver completely. I don't know if it magic but this last one worked for me.

GO NERDS!!!

My problem is solved just by refresh the project, perhap the dependency did not load by the time you run the application

I had the same issue. It happened because I forgot to declare the MySQL connector dependency in my pom file. I added the dependency, then boom! The error went away.

If you are using maven-shade-plugin to package your application in a fat jar, make sure you don't use its <minimizeJar>true</minimizeJar> option because this option will remove some classes from target jar. In my case it was the driver class and when I tried to deploy my app to k8s I got the error org.springframework.jdbc.CannotGetJdbcConnectionException: Failed to obtain JDBC Connection; nested exception is java.sql.SQLException: Cannot load JDBC driver class 'oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver' because class was not present in my_fat_jar/oracle/jdbc folder.

For People who uses Gradle 8.0 and beyond. I had to use

implementation 'mysql:mysql-connector-java:8.0.26'

instead of

implementation group: 'mysql', name: 'mysql-connector-java', version: '8.0.26' ,

my application.yml looks like:

spring:
  datasource:
    driverClassName: com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver
    url: jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/<Your DB name>?useSSL=false

remember to reload your gradle file