To perform MySQL Server incremental backups, binary logs should be enabled and correctly set. Otherwise, you will see one of the following error messages:

Failed to backup “mysql” database with “Full” backup type: ​​​​​​​[DBMS-MYSQL:11015#1]​​​​​​​​​​ Unexpected binary log format. Current value: “MIXED”, expected value: “ROW”. Log in to the DBMS using the MySQL official client or other tools and run the statement to update the binary log format: set global binlog_format = ‘ROW’;

Failed to backup “mysql” database with “Incremental” backup type: ​​​​​​​​[DBMS-MYSQL:11014#1]​​​​​​​​ Binary log is not enabled. Current value of “log_bin” variable: “OFF”. Expected value: “ON”.

To enable the binary logs please follow these single steps:

1. Find the file where my.ini settings are stored and make a backup copy of it (just in case)
2. Open my.inifile and add the following text to the end

   [mysqld]
   
   server_id=1
   log-bin=mysql-bin
   expire_logs_days = 10
   binlog_format=row

3. Press win+r and execute services.msc
   
4. Find MySQL56 (or something similar) in the list of services
5. Right click > restart
   

That’s it! Now the binary logs are enabled, and MySQL incremental backups should run smoothly.