<p>MySQL throws ER_EVENT_CANNOT_ALTER_IN_THE_PAST (error 1589) when an ALTER EVENT or CREATE EVENT statement schedules a next execution time that is already in the past while ON COMPLETION NOT PRESERVE is set.</p>
<p>MySQL Error 1589: ER_EVENT_CANNOT_ALTER_IN_THE_PAST appears when you try to create or modify a scheduled EVENT with a next execution timestamp that has already passed while ON COMPLETION NOT PRESERVE is active. Correct the STARTS or ENDS timestamp to a future value, or change the completion policy, to resolve the issue.</p>
Event execution time is in the past and ON COMPLETION NOT
Error 1589 (ER_EVENT_CANNOT_ALTER_IN_THE_PAST) is raised by the MySQL event scheduler when an ALTER EVENT or CREATE EVENT statement defines a next execution time that has already expired and the event is set to be dropped after completion using ON COMPLETION NOT PRESERVE.
The server blocks the change because it would immediately remove the event, making the statement effectively meaningless. Adjusting the schedule or the completion policy is necessary before MySQL will accept the statement.
This error typically arises during deployment scripts, automated maintenance jobs, or manual updates when developers reuse event definitions without recalculating the STARTS value. It also appears after timezone changes or daylight saving adjustments that push the intended execution into the past.
Leaving the statement unfixed prevents the event from being saved or altered, which can halt data cleanup tasks, reporting pipelines, or recurring business logic embedded in the scheduler. Production outages and data drift can follow.
The most frequent cause is specifying STARTS = '2023-12-31 23:59:59' when the current date is already later than that value.
Server timezone changes or daylight saving shifts can retroactively place the next run time in the past.
CI/CD pipelines that reuse the same DDL scripts may set a static STARTS date that quickly becomes outdated.
Developers copying an event definition from staging to production may forget to update the schedule fields.
Occurs when the event schedule timestamp exceeds the valid DATETIME range.
Appears when an event tries to alter itself recursively.
Raised when attempting to change or drop an event that does not exist.
Yes, because the scheduler no longer tries to drop the event after execution, but only use it when preserving past events is acceptable.
No. The validation occurs during DDL parsing, not execution, so disabling the scheduler will not avoid the error.
Generate dynamic ALTER EVENT statements with SELECT CONCAT() on the information_schema.EVENTS table, setting STARTS = NOW() + INTERVAL 1 HOUR.
Galaxy highlights invalid past timestamps in real time and offers AI-powered fixes that suggest future schedules, reducing deployment-time errors.
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