Cannot load driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver Spring Boot

Question

I was working with Spring Boot project, and suddenly I faced with an issue that application can not load MySQL jdbc.(I compiled this project once without changing anything)
This is my pom.xml:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>1.5.9.RELEASE</version>
</parent>


<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>junit</groupId>
        <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
        <version>4.12</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>mysql</groupId>
        <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        <!-- <scope>runtime</scope> I tried this too -->
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        <exclusions>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
                <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
            <exclusion>
                <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
                <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
            </exclusion>
        </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.google.code.gson</groupId>
        <artifactId>gson</artifactId>
        <version>2.8.2</version>
    </dependency>


    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
        <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId>
        <version>5.2.10.Final</version>
    </dependency>
 </dependencies>

This is my application.properties:

spring.datasource.driver-class-name=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/PROJECT_NAME?useUnicode=yes&characterEncoding=UTF-8
spring.datasource.username=root
spring.datasource.password=password

Logcat:

Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'dataSource' defined in class path resource [org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/jdbc/DataSourceConfiguration$Tomcat.class]: Bean instantiation via factory method failed; nested exception is org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSource]: Factory method 'dataSource' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot load driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:599) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1173) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBeanInstance(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1067) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:513) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:483) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:306) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:230) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:302) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:202) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.config.DependencyDescriptor.resolveCandidate(DependencyDescriptor.java:208) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.doResolveDependency(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:1138) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.resolveDependency(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:1066) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.resolveAutowiredArgument(ConstructorResolver.java:835) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.createArgumentArray(ConstructorResolver.java:741) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    ... 26 common frames omitted
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.BeanInstantiationException: Failed to instantiate [org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSource]: Factory method 'dataSource' threw exception; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot load driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:189) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.ConstructorResolver.instantiateUsingFactoryMethod(ConstructorResolver.java:588) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    ... 39 common frames omitted
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot load driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 
    at org.springframework.util.Assert.state(Assert.java:70) ~[spring-core-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceProperties.determineDriverClassName(DataSourceProperties.java:232) ~[spring-boot-autoconfigure-1.5.9.RELEASE.jar:1.5.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceProperties.initializeDataSourceBuilder(DataSourceProperties.java:184) ~[spring-boot-autoconfigure-1.5.9.RELEASE.jar:1.5.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceConfiguration.createDataSource(DataSourceConfiguration.java:42) ~[spring-boot-autoconfigure-1.5.9.RELEASE.jar:1.5.9.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceConfiguration$Tomcat.dataSource(DataSourceConfiguration.java:56) ~[spring-boot-autoconfigure-1.5.9.RELEASE.jar:1.5.9.RELEASE]
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[na:1.8.0_161]
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[na:1.8.0_161]
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[na:1.8.0_161]
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[na:1.8.0_161]
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.SimpleInstantiationStrategy.instantiate(SimpleInstantiationStrategy.java:162) ~[spring-beans-4.3.13.RELEASE.jar:4.3.13.RELEASE]
    ... 40 common frames omitted

MySQL database is created with hibernate at first. These configurations worked fine but I am not sure what is the real problem here

EDIT : I removed .m2 folder and install all dependencies from beginning as well.

Answer 1

You need to add version to MySQL connector dependency and you need to change the

spring.datasource.driver-class-name

property. MySQL changed the driver from

com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 

to

com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver

You are missing the .cj. (This is for connector version above 5.* I think. Hope this helps.

Cannot load driver class: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver 

clearly states that Hibernate could not find the jdbc driver.