diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 238646df1b09fdb832c528ed803acdc5b190a8c2..bdc1b8e6642dc6d53c936da8cfcdb81c28b3ac07 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -23,3 +23,7 @@ COPY messages.pot /srv/app
 
 RUN mkdir logs
 
+RUN mkdir app/static/embody_drawings  
+RUN mkdir app/static/embody_images  
+RUN mkdir app/static/experiment_stimuli  
+
diff --git a/app/embody_plot.py b/app/embody_plot.py
index da51ab8c63d5e33c2d511d105a93aa8cada68d87..e5999347032cfa7f81b99981fb1ea34b7179d364 100644
--- a/app/embody_plot.py
+++ b/app/embody_plot.py
@@ -55,7 +55,9 @@ class MyDB(object):
         self._db_connection = mariadb.connect(
             user=Config.MYSQL_USER,
             password=Config.MYSQL_PASSWORD,
-            database=Config.MYSQL_DB
+            database=Config.MYSQL_DB,
+            host=Config.MYSQL_SERVER,
+            auth_plugin='mysql_native_password'
         )
         self._db_cur = self._db_connection.cursor()
 
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index 5e2e9071ca7bd9ac922d27e9d27f89c06f87a3d2..db3c14ee9ca0e93f1b3bd0d0ed5077f30ab6c31a 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ class Config(object):
     MYSQL_SERVER = config('MYSQL_SERVER')
     MYSQL_DB = config('MYSQL_DB')
 
-    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'mysql+pymysql://'+MYSQL_USER+':' + \
-        MYSQL_PASSWORD+'@'+MYSQL_SERVER+'/'+MYSQL_DB+'?charset=utf8mb4'
+    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = f"mysql+pymysql://{MYSQL_USER}:{MYSQL_PASSWORD}@{MYSQL_SERVER}/{MYSQL_DB}?charset=utf8mb4"
 
     SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS = False
 
diff --git a/deploy/.env.dev b/deploy/.env.dev
index 879ce829a4a92871eb8b5e94d17cb9829467af1c..b876201ef7315da3b40f1a4cb1b5f0850863be0c 100644
--- a/deploy/.env.dev
+++ b/deploy/.env.dev
@@ -2,4 +2,3 @@ MYSQL_USER=rating
 MYSQL_PASSWORD=rating_passwd
 MYSQL_SERVER=db
 MYSQL_DB=rating_db
-
diff --git a/deploy/docker-compose.yml b/deploy/docker-compose.yml
index ae8488ab62508a7cf90e1da099b64d1fc6374bc9..2de8a3e3036e94baf776982909888edf9c5c171b 100644
--- a/deploy/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/deploy/docker-compose.yml
@@ -26,8 +26,6 @@ services:
     depends_on:
       - db
     command: sh -c "gunicorn run:app -b 0.0.0.0:8000 -k gevent --worker-connections=1000 --workers=1 --log-level debug -t 180"
-    #volumes: FOR DEV
-    #- ./application:/srv/app
 
   db:
     image: mysql
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 59c0e41fc73b6ddcaf9d18579fd987eda7945226..6fd9c3408021b7c2b946d93c5d2885987004f61f 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ gevent==1.4.0
 greenlet==0.4.15
 gunicorn==19.9.0
 matplotlib==3.0.3
-mysql-connector==2.2.9
 networkx==2.2
 numpy==1.16.2
 Pillow
@@ -32,3 +31,5 @@ Werkzeug==0.14.1
 WTForms==2.2.1
 WTForms-SQLAlchemy==0.1
 cryptography
+
+mysql-connector-python
\ No newline at end of file