User root does not necessarily have rights on all DBs.
If you have access to the DB please try this:
-Login in as root
- Do this query:
show grants for root@localhost;
It should give you this:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '<some_encrypted_pw>' WITH GRANT OPTION</some_encrypted_pw>
The important part is
PRIVILEGES ON *.*