Fix Mihomo MMDB Download Stuck | Generated by AI

Home 2026.03

Question: Why does mihomo get stuck at “Can’t find MMDB, start download” during startup?

Answer:

Why Mihomo Gets Stuck at MMDB Download

When you see this log sequence:

INFO Can't find MMDB, start download

…and it just hangs there, it means mihomo is trying to download the GeoIP MMDB database (MaxMind DB format, used for IP geolocation rules) but the download is stalling or failing silently.

Root Causes

1. Network / Connectivity Issue (Most Common)

Mihomo is trying to reach a remote URL (usually hosted on GitHub or jsDelivr CDN) to download Country.mmdb or geoip.metadb. If your machine:

…the download just hangs without a timeout error message.

2. Default Download URL is Blocked

The default MMDB source URL often points to GitHub releases, which is frequently throttled or blocked in China and some other regions.

3. No Pre-existing MMDB File

If there’s no cached MMDB file in mihomo’s working/config directory, it must download one before it can proceed. There’s no fallback.

How to Fix

✅ Fix 1: Manually Download and Place the MMDB File

Download the file manually and place it in mihomo’s config directory (e.g. ~/.config/mihomo/ or wherever your config.yaml lives):

wget -O ~/.config/mihomo/Country.mmdb \
  https://github.com/MetaCubeX/meta-rules-dat/releases/download/latest/country.mmdb

Then restart mihomo. It will find the file and skip the download step.

✅ Fix 2: Set a Custom (Faster) MMDB Download URL in config.yaml

Add the geox-url section to point to a more accessible mirror:

geox-url:
  mmdb: "https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/MetaCubeX/meta-rules-dat@release/country.mmdb"
  geoip: "https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/MetaCubeX/meta-rules-dat@release/geoip.dat"
  geosite: "https://fastly.jsdelivr.net/gh/MetaCubeX/meta-rules-dat@release/geosite.dat"

Or use an alternative mirror like:

mmdb: "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MetaCubeX/meta-rules-dat/release/country.mmdb"

✅ Fix 3: Switch to .dat format (skip MMDB entirely)

If you don’t need MMDB specifically, switch to geodata-mode: true which uses .dat files instead:

geodata-mode: true

This makes mihomo use geoip.dat and geosite.dat instead of the MMDB format, which may be easier to source.

✅ Fix 4: Pre-download at System Level

If you are running mihomo as a system service (e.g. on a router or Linux server), the service may start before networking is fully up. Add a startup delay or After=network-online.target in your systemd unit:

[Unit]
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

Summary Table

Cause Fix
No internet / network not ready Wait, or fix startup order
GitHub CDN blocked/slow Use jsDelivr or alternate mirror URL
No cached MMDB file Manually pre-download the file
Want to avoid MMDB entirely Use geodata-mode: true

References:

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