InnoDB error "Column last_update in table mysql.innodb_table_stats is BINARY(4) NOT NULL but should be INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL" after MySQL/MariaDB upgrade

Symptoms

After performing a MySQL or MariaDB upgrade, you may find the following errors scrolling in the MySQL error log:

20XX-01-01 00:00:00 1 [ERROR] InnoDB: Column last_update in table mysql.innodb_table_stats is BINARY(4) NOT NULL but should be INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL

Description

This error will occur on versions of MariaDB below 10.6.15. If you are able to upgrade to MariaDB 10.6.15 or newer, the update should resolve the issue:

How to upgrade MySQL/MariaDB

Otherwise, you can use the workaround below to clear the error.

Workaround

1. Access your server using SSH as the root user
2. Create a temporary dump of the 'mysql' database:

   mysqldump --events --quick --single-transaction mysql > mysql-dump.sql

3. Reimport the database:

   mysql mysql < mysql-dump.sql