Can't Connect to MongoDB using Mongoose

Question

I'm following this video tutorial on the MERN stack and I'm unable to connect to MongoDB for some very strange reason. This issue has been frustrating me quite a bit since I'm probably just missing something very basic, so please forgive me if the answer is painfully obvious to you.

The video uses mlab for MongoDB, which is no longer available, so I'm instead using MongoDB Atlas. The key I'm supposed to use to connect my application to the database is this:

mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@fs-shopping-list.6rzkd.mongodb.net/<dbname>?retryWrites=true&w=majority

My password doesn't contain any special characters, and my IP address is on the whitelist. As for dbname, I have one database named "data" with a collection called "items," so I'm using "data" for dbname.

The code in question that is causing my problem is in a file called server.js:

const db = require('./config/keys').mongoURI; // I keep my key in a separate file in the way shown in the video

// Connect to MongoDB
mongoose
    .connect(db, { useNewUrlParser: true, useUnifiedTopology: true })
    .then(() => console.log('MongoDB connected.'))
    .catch(err => console.log(err));

I keep getting this error when I try to run the server (I edited out my name from some of the paths):

{ MongooseServerSelectionError: bad auth Authentication failed.
    at NativeConnection.Connection.openUri (/fs_shopping_list/node_modules/mongoose/lib/connection.js:828:32)
    at Mongoose.connect (/fs_shopping_list/node_modules/mongoose/lib/index.js:335:15)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/fs_shopping_list/server.js:15:6)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:689:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:700:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:599:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:538:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:530:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:742:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:743:3)
  message: 'bad auth Authentication failed.',
  reason:
   TopologyDescription {
     type: 'ReplicaSetNoPrimary',
     setName: null,
     maxSetVersion: null,
     maxElectionId: null,
     servers:
      Map {
        'fs-shopping-list-shard-00-01.6rzkd.mongodb.net:27017' => [ServerDescription],
        'fs-shopping-list-shard-00-02.6rzkd.mongodb.net:27017' => [ServerDescription],
        'fs-shopping-list-shard-00-00.6rzkd.mongodb.net:27017' => [ServerDescription] },
     stale: false,
     compatible: true,
     compatibilityError: null,
     logicalSessionTimeoutMinutes: null,
     heartbeatFrequencyMS: 10000,
     localThresholdMS: 15,
     commonWireVersion: null } }

Can someone please help me find out what I'm doing wrong so I can continue the tutorial? Thank you for your time.

EDIT: I don't think adding another account for database access will solve the problem, since admin accounts on MongoDB have the ability to read and write to their databases. The only thing I can think of that is possibly stopping me is maybe my Norton antivirus, although I'm not sure how to test this hypothesis.

If you are sure the URL is correct, do you maybe need to whitelist your IP? — jamomani
– jamomani, Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 21:20
Just to confirm, you are using a database specific username and password, not the username / password to your Atlas management account, right? — Matt Clark
– Matt Clark, Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 21:26
I am using the username and password for my Atlas account that I use to log in to the website and see my clusters. I'm not sure what else to use. — SirIsaacNeutron
– SirIsaacNeutron, Commented Aug 12, 2020 at 22:19
you need to use username and password of your database user which you have created under Security -> Database Access — Dimple Patel
– Dimple Patel, Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 0:34
It says that the role for my account is "atlasAdmin@admin." I am sure I'm using the correct password in the URI string, so something very strange is going on for the authentication to fail... — SirIsaacNeutron
– SirIsaacNeutron, Commented Aug 13, 2020 at 2:23

SirIsaacNeutron · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-13 23:14:41Z

2

Here an example of how I do it with mongoose:

const connectToMongo = async () => {
  try {
    await mongoose.connect(mongoUrl, { useNewUrlParser: true });
    console.log('connected to MongoDB');
  } catch(error) {
    console.log('error connection to MongoDB:', error.message);
  }
};

Here is an example of the mongoUrl: mongo+srv://username:[email protected]/collectionname?retryWrites=true

Please make sure that you create a user to read and write to the database that isn't the admin account. The URI string you get from the "Connect" button might use the admin account even though that's not the account you want to use in the URI string, so keep that in mind. If you did that and you're still unable to connect, please use this checklist:

check that correct IP is whitelisted
check that user has correct rights
check that you are using the right database name (collection)
check if you have special characters in your password (https://docs.atlas.mongodb.com/troubleshoot-connection/#special-pass-characters)

edited Aug 13, 2020 at 23:14

SirIsaacNeutron

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answered Aug 12, 2020 at 21:22

jamomani

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5 Comments

SirIsaacNeutron Over a year ago

I had clicked the "Add my current IP" button and "Allow access from anywhere" buttons on my cluster before I made this post :(. I think my problem has to do with the URI string I have, judging from what Matt Clark said.

SirIsaacNeutron Over a year ago

Am I still able to use Mongoose after using MongoClient? I need to be able to use Mongoose's schemas, etc. to follow the tutorial.

jamomani Over a year ago

Here I have used mongoose: github.com/MarianiGiacomo/Blog-App/tree/master/blog-app-be I hope it can help you. Under app.js I connect to the database. You can not see the dbUri in the repo, but it is in the form mongo+srv://username:[email protected]/collectionname?retryWrites=true

jamomani Over a year ago

I have added some pictures. Hopefully they are helpful.

SirIsaacNeutron Over a year ago

Okay I finally figured out what the problem was. I was copying the URI string provided when you click on the "Connect" button, and it kept saying to use my admin account. I created a new user that only has read-write privileges for the database, used that account in the URI instead, and now it finally works. MongoDB really should've made it clearer that the admin account apparently can't be used for reading and writing to the database (even though the documentation I've linked in the post suggests otherwise). Thank you so much for your help :)

Jānis Seržants · Accepted Answer · 2021-10-08 20:06:45Z

0

Try to add dbName in options:

await mongoose.connect('mongodb://root:example@mongo:27017', { dbName: "blog" });

answered Oct 8, 2021 at 20:06

Jānis Seržants

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