<p>The error appears when a table definition is altered while your transaction is still using the old metadata, forcing the statement to abort and be retried.</p>
<p>MySQL Error 1412 ER_TABLE_DEF_CHANGED occurs when another session alters or recreates a table while your transaction is still using the old definition. Finish or roll back the transaction, then rerun the statement, or coordinate DDL to stop the conflict.</p>
Table definition has changed, please retry transaction
MySQL raises this runtime error when a table definition changes while a statement from your transaction is running. The server invalidates its metadata and stops the statement so you can retry on the fresh definition.
The error appears during SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, or other DML if a concurrent ALTER TABLE, TRUNCATE TABLE, OPTIMIZE TABLE, or partition management command committed after the transaction opened the table.
Each table definition stores a version counter. DDL operations increment the counter. When the current statement finishes parsing the header, the server compares counters. A mismatch raises ER_TABLE_DEF_CHANGED instantly.
Long running transactions or large batch jobs can fail unexpectedly when DBAs apply migrations. Work is lost and application retries may spike, so understanding and mitigating this error is critical for uptime.
Data remains consistent because MySQL cancels the offending statement. However your application must handle the exception, roll back, and retry to ensure business correctness.
A DDL command changed columns or indexes while your transaction still held a cached definition.
Truncation recreates the table, updating its internal ID and forcing open handles to fail.
Both commands rebuild the table and swap the underlying storage, updating metadata.
Adding, dropping, or exchanging partitions creates a new table definition version.
CI pipelines or replica catch up jobs may issue DDL unexpectedly, colliding with long transactions.
Raised when transactions lock rows in conflicting order.
Occurs when a lock is held too long by another session.
Triggered when a statement references a dropped or renamed table.
Appears during CREATE TABLE when the name is taken after a retry.
Only the failing statement is aborted but best practice is to roll back and retry the entire transaction for a clean state.
Autocommit reduces transaction length and exposure but cannot fully prevent definition changes during a long running statement.
Turning off online DDL or scheduling migrations during maintenance drastically lowers the risk of definition conflicts.
Galaxy surfaces running transactions, highlights pending schema changes, and keeps teams coordinated so migrations do not collide with critical workloads.
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