Very common mysql query sometimes does not use index

Question

As far as I can tell, for some reason a small fraction of very common queries fail to use indexes. If all such queries failed to use indexes, the server would crash within 1 minute hence only a few such queries behave like this.

How should I prevent these occasional slow queries which in vast majority of cases work fine?

My create tables are:

CREATE TABLE msgs (
  id bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  sender text NOT NULL,
  receiver text NOT NULL,
  cont blob NOT NULL,
  img text NOT NULL,
  orient text NOT NULL,
  d_t datetime NOT NULL,
  convo text NOT NULL,
  u_code text NOT NULL,
  viewed datetime NOT NULL,
  stat int(11) NOT NULL,
  device text NOT NULL,
  addr text NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id),
  KEY msg_u_code (`u_code`(24)),
  KEY receiver (`receiver`(24)),
  KEY sender (`sender`(24)),
  KEY img (`img`(28)),
  KEY convo (`convo`(49))
) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

CREATE TABLE usrs (
  id bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  usr_name text NOT NULL,
  img text NOT NULL,
  orient text NOT NULL,
  `password` text NOT NULL,
  u_code text NOT NULL,
  d_t datetime NOT NULL,
  stat int(11) NOT NULL,
  device text NOT NULL,
  addr text NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id),
  KEY img (`img`(28)),
  KEY usr_code (`u_code`(24))
) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

And my slow query log entry is:

 # Time: 171115  6:26:37
 # User@Host: xxx[xxx] @ localhost []
 # Thread_id: 25524888  Schema: xxx  QC_hit: No
 # Query_time: 32.423430  Lock_time: 0.000425  Rows_sent: 1  Rows_examined: 30998008
 # Rows_affected: 0
 use xxx;
 SET timestamp=1510723597;
 select msg_cont, msg_u_code, msg_d_t, msg_viewed, usr_u_code, usr_name from
        (select
            msgs.id as msg_id,
            msgs.cont as msg_cont,
            msgs.u_code as msg_u_code,
            msgs.d_t as msg_d_t,
            msgs.viewed as msg_viewed,
            usrs.u_code as usr_u_code,
            usrs.usr_name as usr_name
            from msgs
            left join usrs on msgs.sender = usrs.u_code
    where  msgs.convo = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid_aaaaaaaaaabeiaccjfhjfach'
      and  (msgs.sender = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid'
              or  msgs.receiver = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid'
           )
      and  msgs.stat = '1'
      and  usrs.stat = '1'
      and  usrs.u_code not in('aaaaaaaaaabfaagfbgggiejh',
                              'aaaaaaaaaabfabgbjdfjigbd',
                ...... !!!!![here go 400 more usr_u_codes]!!!!!
                          )
      and  msgs.id > 30997997
        ) a order by msg_id asc;

Answer 1

While I am unable to explain why MySQL occasionally decided not to use index on a very obvious and very common query, the solution was to simply force the index.

In my particular case:

select msg_cont, msg_u_code, msg_d_t, msg_viewed, usr_u_code, usr_name from
        (select
            msgs.id as msg_id,
            msgs.cont as msg_cont,
            msgs.u_code as msg_u_code,
            msgs.d_t as msg_d_t,
            msgs.viewed as msg_viewed,
            usrs.u_code as usr_u_code,
            usrs.usr_name as usr_name
            from msgs FORCE INDEX (convo)
            left join usrs FORCE INDEX (u_code) on msgs.sender = usrs.u_code
    where  msgs.convo = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid_aaaaaaaaaabeiaccjfhjfach'
      and  (msgs.sender = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid'
              or  msgs.receiver = 'aaaaaaaaaabfbaghdgcigfid'
           )
      and  msgs.stat = '1'
      and  usrs.stat = '1'
      and  usrs.u_code not in('aaaaaaaaaabfaagfbgggiejh',
                              'aaaaaaaaaabfabgbjdfjigbd',
                ...... !!!!![here go 400 more usr_u_codes]!!!!!
                          )
      and  msgs.id > 30997997
        ) a order by msg_id asc;

Slow query log proved this solution to be effective as no new slow entries emerge.