diff --git a/src/infrastructure/env/PhabricatorEnv.php b/src/infrastructure/env/PhabricatorEnv.php
--- a/src/infrastructure/env/PhabricatorEnv.php
+++ b/src/infrastructure/env/PhabricatorEnv.php
@@ -249,9 +249,17 @@
     }
 
     try {
-      $stack->pushSource(
-        id(new PhabricatorConfigDatabaseSource('default'))
-          ->setName(pht('Database')));
+      // See T13403. If we're starting up in "config optional" mode, suppress
+      // messages about connection retries.
+      if ($config_optional) {
+        $database_source = @new PhabricatorConfigDatabaseSource('default');
+      } else {
+        $database_source = new PhabricatorConfigDatabaseSource('default');
+      }
+
+      $database_source->setName(pht('Database'));
+
+      $stack->pushSource($database_source);
     } catch (AphrontSchemaQueryException $exception) {
       // If the database is not available, just skip this configuration
       // source. This happens during `bin/storage upgrade`, `bin/conf` before
diff --git a/src/infrastructure/storage/connection/mysql/AphrontBaseMySQLDatabaseConnection.php b/src/infrastructure/storage/connection/mysql/AphrontBaseMySQLDatabaseConnection.php
--- a/src/infrastructure/storage/connection/mysql/AphrontBaseMySQLDatabaseConnection.php
+++ b/src/infrastructure/storage/connection/mysql/AphrontBaseMySQLDatabaseConnection.php
@@ -126,7 +126,14 @@
             $code,
             $ex->getMessage());
 
-          phlog($message);
+          // See T13403. If we're silenced with the "@" operator, don't log
+          // this connection attempt. This keeps things quiet if we're
+          // running a setup workflow like "bin/config" and expect that the
+          // database credentials will often be incorrect.
+
+          if (error_reporting()) {
+            phlog($message);
+          }
         } else {
           $profiler->endServiceCall($call_id, array());
           throw $ex;