ERROR 1180 occurs when MySQL encounters a storage, engine, or replication fault while completing a COMMIT statement. This error signals an underlying problem such as disk space issues, hardware failures, or transaction size limits that prevented the transaction from being persisted.
ERROR 1180 (ER_ERROR_DURING_COMMIT, SQLSTATE HY000) indicates that MySQL was unable to complete the commit phase of a transaction. During a commit, MySQL attempts to permanently persist all changes made within the transaction to the database. If the storage engine, file system, or replication layer encounters an error at this critical moment, MySQL aborts the commit and raises error 1180. The error message includes a numeric placeholder (%d) representing the underlying sub-error code. This real error code appears in the MySQL error log and indicates the actual problem—for example, error 28 (disk full), error 4 (I/O error), or error 131 (transaction size exceeded). The 1180 error is always a symptom of another problem rather than a root cause itself. This is a serious persistence problem that requires immediate investigation and remediation.
The error 1180 message contains only a placeholder. The actual underlying error is logged separately.
On Unix/Linux systems:
tail -n 100 /var/log/mysql/error.log | grep -i "error"On Windows:
Get-Content "C:\\ProgramData\\MySQL\\MySQL Server 8.0\\Data\\COMPUTERNAME.err" -Tail 100 | Select-String -Pattern "error"Look for error codes like:
- Error 28: Disk full—requires freeing space immediately
- Error 5: I/O error—indicates hardware or file system failure
- Error 131: Transaction size exceeded—break transactions into smaller units
- Error 1114: Too many open files—increase system file descriptors
Many commit failures are caused by a full disk. Check available space:
# On Linux/Unix
df -h /var/lib/mysql
# Check inode usage too
df -i /var/lib/mysql
# On Windows (check the drive where MySQL data resides)
Get-Volume C:If disk usage is above 90%, you must free space before proceeding:
- Remove old binary logs: PURGE BINARY LOGS BEFORE '2025-01-01 00:00:00';
- Archive or delete old backups
- Expand the partition or mount additional storage
- Restart MySQL after freeing space
Run this query in MySQL to identify transaction lock conflicts and waits:
SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS\GLook for sections labeled:
- TRANSACTIONS: Lists active transactions and their state
- LOCK WAITS: Shows blocked transactions waiting for locks
If you find a blocking transaction, terminate it carefully:
-- First, identify the blocking process ID
SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.INNODB_LOCKS;
-- Kill the blocking transaction (replace PROCESS_ID)
KILL PROCESS_ID;Note: Use KILL QUERY for just the query, or KILL CONNECTION to close the entire session.
When importing large dump files, mysqldump uses SET autocommit=0 to wrap all INSERTs in a single transaction. If the table is very large, this can exceed transaction size limits or hit other constraints.
Solution: Strip the autocommit settings before import
# For gzipped dumps
zcat dump.sql.gz | sed '/set autocommit=0;/d' | sed '/commit;/d' | mysql -u root -p mydb
# For uncompressed dumps
sed '/set autocommit=0;/d' ; sed '/commit;/d' dump.sql | mysql -u root -p mydbThis allows MySQL to auto-commit each INSERT statement individually, reducing transaction size.
Alternatively, export the dump without autocommit=0:
mysqldump --extended-insert --quick --single-transaction mydb > dump.sqlIf the error is not disk or lock related, adjust InnoDB settings in my.cnf or my.ini:
[mysqld]
# Increase buffer pool (50-75% of system RAM on dedicated servers)
innodb_buffer_pool_size=4G
# Increase log file size for large transactions
innodb_log_file_size=1G
# Increase number of log files
innodb_log_files_in_group=3
# For Galera Cluster, increase transaction size limit
wsrep_max_ws_size=512MAfter editing, restart MySQL:
sudo systemctl restart mysqlIf your application performs massive multi-statement transactions, reduce their scope:
Before (fails with error 1180 on large datasets):
START TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (...); -- 100,000 rows
INSERT INTO table2 VALUES (...); -- 100,000 rows
UPDATE table3 SET ... WHERE ...; -- 50,000 rows
COMMIT;After (commit in batches):
-- Batch 1
START TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO table1 VALUES (...); -- 10,000 rows
COMMIT;
-- Batch 2
START TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO table2 VALUES (...); -- 10,000 rows
COMMIT;
-- And so on...Smaller transactions reduce the risk of exhausting buffer pool space or transaction size limits.
If MySQL becomes read-only after a failed commit and normal restart does not help, use InnoDB recovery mode:
[mysqld]
innodb_force_recovery=1Valid values: 1-6 (higher values = more aggressive, less safe)
- 1: Skip corrupted pages
- 2: Prevent rollback of uncommitted transactions
- 3: Don't run undo logs
- 4: Prevent crash recovery
- 5: Treat incomplete log as correct
- 6: Do not access undo logs
After restart with recovery mode:
1. Export all data to a backup
2. Stop MySQL
3. Remove recovery setting
4. Rebuild the instance with exported data
Galera Cluster (MariaDB) Note: In Galera, wsrep_max_ws_size controls the maximum transaction write set size (default 2 GB). Large transactions exceeding this will fail with error 1180. To fix, increase wsrep_max_ws_size or split transactions: SET GLOBAL wsrep_max_ws_size=536870912; (512 MB).
Replication Environments: If error 1180 occurs on a replica, check for replication lag using SHOW SLAVE STATUS;. High lag may indicate the slave is falling behind and needs tuning. On the source, verify binary log settings are not exhausting disk space.
Difference from Related Errors: Error 1213 (deadlock) and 1205 (lock wait timeout) abort transactions before COMMIT, allowing safe retry. Error 1180 fails during COMMIT itself, indicating a storage-level problem that requires investigation before retry.
Best Practices: Use small, idempotent transactions to minimize blast radius of a failed COMMIT. Enable binary logging and set up point-in-time backups to replay lost transactions if needed. Monitor disk utilization, I/O latency, and InnoDB crash recovery metrics regularly. Use SHOW PROCESSLIST; to detect long-running transactions that might trigger size limits.
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