Error: Insufficient User Permissions - REPLICATION CLIENT Privilege Needed

Issue

The connector sync fails with the error:

Insufficient user permissions - REPLICATION CLIENT privilege needed.

Environment

Connector: MySQL

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Confirm whether any permissions were recently changed for the Fivetran database user.

2. Run the following command to grant the required privileges:

   GRANT SELECT, REPLICATION CLIENT, REPLICATION SLAVE ON *.* TO '<username>'@'%';
   

   Replace <username> with your Fivetran user, for example, fivetran.

3. Run the following command to verify the user's privileges. Confirm that the output includes REPLICATION CLIENT:

   • Query existing grants: SHOW GRANTS FOR '<username>'@'%';

Cause

This issue occurs when the Fivetran database user does not have the REPLICATION CLIENT privilege. Fivetran requires this privilege to read replication metadata, such as binary log coordinates, during syncs.