I cannot reset auto_increment from java

I was trying to run the query: ALTER TABLE `utente`
AUTO_INCREMENT=1; from my java program but it did not accepted the statement.. i checked the syntax, run it on HeidiSQL but everything was alright as it should be and the query ran properly, then i tried other kind of queries and they all worked properly but the one i mentioned on top was not working...
i also made sure that my table was empty so i think that is something related with driver that is not allowing to perform the ALTER TABLE `utente`
AUTO_INCREMENT=1; query