About the Author

Michael Doig is a science teacher, web developer, and avid traveler who lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Installing WordPress Locally Using MAMP

By Michael Doig on Friday, December 9, 2005
Filed Under: Tutorials

Installing MAMP and running WordPress locally on your Mac is a simple task, however I was unable to find any good documentation while I was attempting to do it for the first time which made it seem really difficult. My goal with this tutorial is to help you download MAMP and WordPress and have them up and running in 15 minutes. Let’s get started…

First of all if you have no idea what I’m even talking about. MAMP is an application that installs Apache, MySQL, and PHP on your Mac. This turns your computer into a server capable of running scripts locally. Macs actually come with most of this pre-installed, but the setup for it is a bit more complicated and using MAMP is far easier. Secondly this tutorial assumes you are using OS 10.4 Tiger, because we rely on a widget to get things rolling. If you are using OS 10.3 Panther you should still be able to follow along.

To start we need to go download the MAMP installer. It’s just like installing any other program on a Mac.

After installation go to your Applications folder and locate MAMP. In the MAMP folder you should see a black icon for installing the widget. Click the widget installer and OS X will ask you if you want to keep it, click keep. Then activate your dashboard by hitting the f12 key and find the widget.

mamp_widget

Edit: For those of you not using OS 10.4, you can click on the MAMP application icon in the MAMP folder to get access to the start page and server on/off buttons.

You are going to do two things here. First click the i button on the bottom of the widget to flip it over (this button isn’t visible until you mouse over) and select php 4 on the back. Click done, which takes you back to the front and then click stop servers. When the progress wheel stops click start servers. Once they start, click Open Start Page. The page that pops up can cause your eyes to glass over if you don’t know what you are looking at, but this page contains the info we need to install WordPress.

mamp_start

Write down the host, user, and password which should be localhost, root, and root. However look at the example they provide and you will notice they enter localhost:8889 which will be important later when we install WordPress. Click on the phpMyAdmin link. You need to add a new database for WordPress to connect to. To make things easier we will create a new database named wordpress, however you can call it anything you want. Then click create. That’s it. Now we need to get WordPress.

mamp_mysql

Go and download WordPress. Once it’s done move the wordpress folder to the htdocs folder which is in the MAMP folder where we found the widget earlier. Now if you open the readme.html file in the wordpress folder you will get some instructions that I’m about to run you through.

mamp_folder

Since I know all of you have the program TextEdit that’s what we are going to use for this next step (Edit: If you do use TextEdit make sure it’s set to plain text and not rich text under preferences>format). Locate the wp-config-sample.php file in the WordPress folder and open with TextEdit. We need to modify this file. You need to change the info in this file to the same as what we found on the MAMP start page. Make sure the DB_NAME is wordpress (or whatever you named your DB in the phpMyAdmin panel), Change the DB_USER to ‘root’, DB_PASSWORD to ‘root’, and the DB_HOST to localhost:8889. Save this file as wp-config.php.

mamp_wp_settings

Next you need to open http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php. Once it’s done you will be given a username and password. Write these down because you will need them to get in to the admin account. Now if you navigate to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/ you should see your default installation of WordPress.

Now you can work on your blog or develop templates on your local machine without changing your online blog. This also allows you to work on your blog development without an internet connection. For some other tips on how to use MAMP check out How do you use MAMP?.

I hope this got you up and running in 15 minutes like I promised when we started. Now that you are up and running, you will want to select a great looking theme for your blog. Have a look at these 10 beautiful WordPress themes. Good Luck!

Video Tutorial

I’ve added a MAMP video tutorial that gives an advanced peek at MAMP.

FAQ

1. Can I use MAMP to host my web site for other people to see?
-Yes, but not really. MAMP is more like a testing ground to run server scripts on your local computer. This allows you to develop themes, learn more about web based applications and test before you go live. However, if you are looking for a host to biuld a site online I recommend using Bluehost or signing up for a free WordPress blog at WordPress.com.

2. I can’t open the start page from the widget.
-This is a known problem and I contacted the developers about it. You can open the start page from the MAMP application, then bookmark it so you can return to it. The start page address is http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English
Edit: Possible fix.

3. When you say I need to “open http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php” do you mean open it in a browser?
-Everything you run in MAMP should start http://localhost:8888/ this is sort of like www, then you’ll add the name of the folder you are trying to access in the htdocs folder. So it will be http://localhost:8888/wordpress. Everything you add after that will take you to a different file in the wordpress folder. By opening the http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php you set the connection between the database (mysql) and the WordPress site (php). /wp-admin/install.php is just shorthand.

4. I used to be able to use MAMP, but now I get an unable to connect or failed to open page error when I go to my MAMP sites.
-Check the widget or the MAMP application and make sure the servers are running. There should be green lights to indicate that they are on.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Tags: MAMP, OS X, tutorial

289 Comment(s)

James (aka MacManX) | Dec 9, 2005 | Reply

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend using TextEdit to edit the wp-config.php file, as editing the plain text file with a rich text editor could lead to problems later on. If you do want to use TextEdit to edit any of WordPress’s .php files, please make sure that you select “Plain Text” under the “Format” preference for TextEdit before opening the file. Alternatively, you could use a third-party plain text editor, like SubEthaEdit or Smultron, to edit WordPress’s .php files.
Michael Doig | Dec 9, 2005 | Reply

Thanks James, I’ll make a note in the tutorial.
john | Dec 10, 2005 | Reply

Text Wrangler is free and does text nicely.
david | Dec 14, 2005 | Reply

fantastic! excellent and simple walk-thru.
Jason | Dec 15, 2005 | Reply

Great walkthrough.
Michael Doig | Dec 22, 2005 | Reply

Not sure what you are stuck on. If you could be more specific, I might be able to point you in the right direction. If you click the links they should open the files you need. If they don’t just open the file /wp-admin/install.php in your browser and the rest should be self explanatory.
Raghav Suri | Dec 23, 2005 | Reply

Will this work even if I am not using Tiger? Am using panther, I will retry the tutorial.
Raghav Suri | Dec 23, 2005 | Reply

Hey I’ve got it working, I have successfully logged in and am now editing my blog.

My question is how to change themes and how to save the blog to a domain that I have?
Raghav Suri | Dec 22, 2005 | Reply

Good tutorial, just stuck on this part:

“Next you need to run /wp-admin/install.php and when it is done you will be given a name and password. Write these down because you will need them to get in to the admin account. Now if you navigate to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/ you should see a default installation of WordPress.

You can now work on your blog or develop templates on your local machine without changing your online blog. This also allows you to work on your blog development without an internet connection. I hope this got you up and running in 15 minutes like I promised when we started. If you have any questions or comments please post them.”

Could you explain?

Thanks
Michael Doig | Dec 23, 2005 | Reply

Your best bet would be to go to http://www.wordpress.org and click on support. They have a codex and lots of forum support for new wordpress users. If you Google wordpress + whatever you are looking for (like themes) you’ll find some great results. I’m glad you got it working and Good Luck.
Raghav Suri | Dec 23, 2005 | Reply

Thanks, Mike

This is a great tutorial.
mackrick | Dec 27, 2005 | Reply

An excellent tutorial on installing php/apache/mysql on your Mac.
I only wish I had found this a year or two ago it would have saved me some real heart ache.
Its a lot easier than using other software packages that are out there.
Nodda | Dec 28, 2005 | Reply

Thus far, I think it’s a great tutorial. My only problem is that once I start the servers it won’t open the start page no matter what I do. Is there any other way to get that page to open up, or any explanation you might have for why my computer’s such an ass?

Again, thanks.
Michael Doig | Dec 28, 2005 | Reply

Try to restart your computer and then restart the servers and see if that works.
bluepolo | Dec 29, 2005 | Reply

Hi.

I am trying MAMP under 10.3.9. I can get the servers to start, but clicking on open start page gives me “Error: Could not connect to MySQL server!”. I know apache is going because I put a plain html file in the htdocs folder.

Any ideas? Your tutorial is interesting but it seems to focus on widgets which is 10.4 only?

TIA

BP
bluepolo | Dec 29, 2005 | Reply

further to my previous post, I think I might be missing the mysql.sock file from the mysql tmp folder – if I run the command “/Applications/MAMP/bin/mysql4/bin/mysql -u root” I get “ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock’ (2)”

frustrating!
Eddie | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

Hi,

I got the same problem as Nodda. I cant get the start page to load. Maybe I screw up some configuration when I tried to install wordpress from this http://allforces.com/2005/08/25/wordpress-on-mac-install/ .

Is there a way I can reset to the default settings?
Michael Doig | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

Your best bet would be to redownload a fresh version of everything and start over after restarting your computer. I’ve never had the problem so I don’t know how to resolve it. The best part about MAMP is that it is like any other application. Delete it and you can start fresh, you’re not messing with any root level files.
Andy Miller | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

Michael

I thought you(and other people reading this) might be interested in the tutorial in the Textpattern Wiki.

http://textpattern.net/wiki/index.php?title=Using_MAMP_%28Macintosh-Apache-MySQL-PHP%29_for_Macintosh

Does MAMP handle clean-URLs with WordPress? It was certainly an issue with the previous version and I haven’t yet been able to get them to work with the current version.
Jared | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

I seem to be having the same problem as Eddie and Nodda. Has anyone found a solution other than reinstalling? I tried to reinstsall and I still don’t get the start page.
Jared | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

Ah! got it…
http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language
just copy and paste that if you’re having the start page problem
Jared | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

God.

So close. When I go to install wordpress I just get a bunch of code that’s not a webpage.

When I open the file in Flock I get mostly code and a little bit of page….

Same with firefox.

Any clue what to do?
Paolo | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

When I click on your link /wp-admin/install.php I get this message on my broser: “Error establishing a database connection”. When you say “root” you mean to write “root” or the user name I have set in my own powerbook? or the username I set for my blog on wordpress.org??? I don’t get it! Thanks
Eddie | Jan 2, 2006 | Reply

guys, I got the start page to load. But not from the widget. I dragged the Mamp program to dock and loaded the start page from there.

Any idea why the widget doesnt work?
estee | Jan 6, 2006 | Reply

never used mamp before. it’s fantastic and so is this tute!
love your work!
Don | Jan 10, 2006 | Reply

It took me close to an hour to get it up and running. Everything seems fine so far.

It’s great that you went through the trouble to supply us newbees with the info that we need in order to start our own blogs.

Thanks and keep up the good work.
Matt Downey | Jan 11, 2006 | Reply

Fantastic! It took me four minutes to get all three of my WordPress test sites up and running. Thanks very much for taking the time to write this useful step-by-step!
sara | Jan 12, 2006 | Reply

When you say I need to “run /wp-admin/install.php” do you mean open it in a browser? I am just a bit stuck here. I can’t drag the file into my browser to open it. It wont work. So how do I run it?
Michael Doig | Jan 12, 2006 | Reply

“Does MAMP handle clean-URLs with WordPress? It was certainly an issue with the previous version and I havenâ€™t yet been able to get them to work with the current version.”

If you want MAMP to provide clean-URL’s check out…
http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/05/17/fix-wordpress-permalinks-with-mamp/
Michael Doig | Jan 12, 2006 | Reply

Sara,
You should be able to just click that link, however if you enter localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php that should do the trick.
Good Luck,
sara | Jan 12, 2006 | Reply

Just as a side note, I have opened it through the local url on my machine and it says it cannot be found. It is clearly in the directory. Thanks for your help.
sara | Jan 13, 2006 | Reply

The link isn’t working for me and when I put in “localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php” in the browser I am getting a message saying “the connection was refused when attempting to contact localhost:8888.
Michael Doig | Jan 13, 2006 | Reply

Did you start the server using the widget?
Wim | Jan 13, 2006 | Reply

What most people are missing when they want to run /wp-admin/install.php, is that they have not copied the wordpress file in the Applications/MAP/htdocs directory.
Wim | Jan 14, 2006 | Reply

correction on my post of january 13th:

should read: ….copied the wordpress folder in the Applications/MAMP/htdocs directory.
Jay | Jan 14, 2006 | Reply

unreal. this worked awesome and i was up and running fast.

the one thing that i found is that once you are on the start page annd are ready to install wordpress, make use this link- localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

i was trying to open the file with the browser and just got a bunch of junk. once i pasted that link into the browser, it installed.

thanks for the help! can’t wait to start theme testing.
veet | Jan 22, 2006 | Reply

Help Please!

I’m still on Mac OSX 10.2.8. I downloaded MAMP, but there are just a couple folders, no widgets. Does this not work for older OSX?

If not, can someone help me with getting WordPress installed: I’ve got it downloaded, put it in Applications, but that’s not enough, and I’m so inept at computer language, that I can’t get any further with the WP download instructions. Grateful for all help.
opensourceuser | Jan 28, 2006 | Reply

Dear Michael

Thank you for the timely blog explaining how to install WordPress locally using MAMP.

All done.

And thank you to Jared :: post item 21. for the ‘heads-up’ on the URI address to enter into your chosen browser. Previously we could not get any result from the MAMP
widget and ‘Open start page’ button .. no matter how many times we clicked the sucker. Yet everything else about the MAMP widget operates 100%. And thank you to Jay :: post item 40. for the ‘heads-up’ on the subsequent browser address line to enter to have WordPress install open. Encountered a couple of moments with Safari on OS X where Safari doesn’t always pick up all of the images for the theme previewing (from the theme’ images folder) and other times displayed visual mis-formatting from an established theme. Few reload clicks usually returned the theme fully. However .. without Firefox .. things could have come unstuck. Firefox performs flawlessly and also displays the WordPress included (tiny) html editor in WordPress. Safari does not.
[ Safari 2.0.1 doesn't display the available html editor at google mail for gmail accounts ].
Firefox confirmed that Safari is the occasional delinquent offender and not WordPress.

Wrapping up :: Tiger 10.4.3 | MAMP 1.1.1 | Safari 2.02 | Firefox 1.5 :: Well done – done well.

warmest regards
Stuart .
IronMac | Jan 30, 2006 | Reply

Very good tutorial! I’ve followed the instructions but what I’m trying to do is to serve a WP blog out to the outside world. In following the instructions, everything seems to work properly but no one from the outside can “see” my weblog.

Is there something in Apache and/or WP that I have to change in order to allow me to do that?
Michael Doig | Jan 30, 2006 | Reply

IronMac, unfortunately MAMP is really designed for running your site “locally”. Hosting your site from your computer is a bad idea especially if you aren’t familiar with system admin type things. I use Bluehost and they are great. Really inexpensive and great service. Then people will be able to see your site. They also offer 1 click WordPress installation with fantastico.
IronMac | Jan 30, 2006 | Reply

Michael, thanks for the very quick reply and for the suggestions. Others have done it and I was thinking of giving it a shot. I guess I will have to see where to go from here. Cheers!
piero | Jan 31, 2006 | Reply

thank you for this program
Eddie | Jan 31, 2006 | Reply

Hi Michael,
there seem to be something wrong with the MySQL, I realised that it doesnt stop even after I quit MAMP. I didnt have any problem until lately, it became impossible to connect to my blog with this error message:

Error establishing a database connection

This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost:8889. This could mean your host’s database server is down.

I wonder whats wrong. I have not messed with the settings since I installed MAMP and it had been running well until today.
Michael Doig | Jan 31, 2006 | Reply

Check the widget and make sure the servers are on, if they are restart them.
adam | Feb 1, 2006 | Reply

running on panther 10.3.9

have a problem

when pasting this into the browser
/wp-admin/install.php

i have a garbled bunch of code, a couple of forms
admin and password are given at the bottom
(this is in ie, mozilla, firefox and safari

ive reinstalled both mamp and wordpress
to no delight

if i link
localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
i get the error code about passwords installation etc.
Error establishing a database connection

ive updated wp-config.php. using textwrangler
and doesnt seem to be any problems there

any help
would be great

cheers
adam
adam | Feb 1, 2006 | Reply

ignore last post
had an issue defining database
all sweet
and thanks for the tutorial (priceless)

adam
katonah | Feb 6, 2006 | Reply

Great tutorial, thank you!

Just wondering: is there a particular reason that the MAMP-distribution doesn’t comprise the most up-to-date versions of the software included? Like: MySQL 4.x instead of 5.x?

I realize that you’re not really the one I should ask this, but maybe you’re in the know. Is MySQL 4.x more compatible with other (older?) stuff around?
The thing is: the v.1.1.1 of MAMP (great icon btw) is updated quite recently (jan 19), but still lacks MySQL 5.x.

Not too important a question though.
Just want to be up-to-date, generally.

Thanks,
katonah
Michael Doig | Feb 6, 2006 | Reply

Katonah,
I’m not exactly sure why it’s not fully up-to-date. From my experience MAMP is rock solid and maybe they figured if it isn’t broken why fix it. It’s a good question and if I find out more I’ll be sure to post it. However, you can update any part of the program manually.
Thanks,
MD
katonah | Feb 6, 2006 | Reply

Michael,
thanks for your kind reply.

Just gone through the steps, very easy, very well.
Just two things: First, I am yet another guy for whom the “Open start page”-button in the widget does not work (neither restart nor reinstallation help); however, I can call the start page manually or via the MAMP-application.

Second, clicking the link file:///Applications/MAMP/htdocs/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php just produces a page full of gibberish complaining there would be no wp-config.php-file (which is actually there is); however, pointing the browser to: localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php works beautifully.

Could there be a connection between the two problems? the widget linking as well to “file:/// …” not finding anything, instead of “localhost: …”?

Cheers,
katonah
Adriana | Feb 22, 2006 | Reply

Hi Michael!!!
this was neat!!! although I am not quite sure WHY I want to run WordPress locally.

First things first, I am also a designer with zero code knowledge. I want a Blog and want to have more control over it.

I have already signed up for a free account on WordPress.com

Now, I am not quite sure what to do with my local version and the free account.
Would these 2 exist independently of each other?

Maybe it was a better solution to install wordpress in my website but I don’t want to screw it up. I have no idea about programming.
Also, I couldn’t open the start page via the widget. I called it via the MAMP-application.
Anyway.. this has been fun and thank you Michael for this very easy to follow tutorial.
Unkle E | Feb 25, 2006 | Reply

Michael,

This was great, and got me most of the way I need to go. But I am just starting out with WordPress, and I am having a few problems, and I wonder if you could help please?

I have MAMP and WordPress installed Ok, and I can edit the blog OK on my Mac (running 10.4). But I want to run WordPress within a larger website, and I am having problems knowing where to put my files. At present the WordPress files have the path applications/MAMP/htdocs/Wordpress. My web homepage is on the desktop in its own folder. But I want the website structure on my Mac to mirror the structure on my ISP’s web server.

So, should I put the WordPress files in my local web folder, in which case, how do I format the localhost statement to call up the webpage, equivalent to your “localhost:8888/wordpress/” ? or should I only put the index.php file there, in which case the local structure won’t reflect the ISP server structure?

I think my real problem is that I don’t really understand “localhost” and I can’t find a simple explanation via google (not do I understand why we entered 8889 in your setup yet the localhost is 8888).

Thanks
Andrew G | Feb 26, 2006 | Reply

I also ran into a problem when I got to the install.php stage, I think it had someting to do with MAMP listing my port as 3306 rather than 8888. When running install.php in Camino, I would get a blank screen and my download window would pop up. Then, when trying to get to http://localhost:3306/wordpress/ I would get a PHP file opening in SubEthaEdit and, strangely, Final Cut would launch. Try as I might, I just couldn’t get it to work.

I seem to have now bypassed the issue by putting the wordpress folder in my local ‘Sites’ directory rather than MAMP/htdocs and can now go to http://localhost/wordpress, so far seemingly without issue.
Michael Doig | Feb 26, 2006 | Reply

Hello Everyone,
I’m putting together a FAQ for this article that will hopefully answer some of the more common questions I’ve been getting. I’m also writing an Advanced MAMP tutorial that will hopefully address some of your more advanced questions. Please stay tuned.
Bruce Mewhinney | Feb 27, 2006 | Reply

Hey, MD, my personal and professional compliments on both MAMP and your blog. Excellent!
Here’s a “strategic” question, which I’m asking long in advance of installing either MAMP or WordPress (Rule#1 of old SysAdmins = “After many others bravely test, I humbly follow footsteps of the one survivor.”).
I am running my own Mac OSX SERVER 10.3.8 at http://209.204.170.100 with four top-level domains and the mail-server active. My intent is also to run PHP Version 4.3.11, MySQL 5.0.18, and WordPress 2.0.1 on that same server. More specifically, I want to have each domain show its own blog as a subfolder (.com/weblog, .net/weblog, etc), with each blog clearly linked to the others. Have your run WordPress and/or MAMP with a similar configuration, and if so, any warnings or advice?
My hope is that just one installation of the WordPress application could be used to run the four blogs simultaneously. Note that all four domains have their own Site subfolder but all reside within the same /Library/WebServer/Documents folder.
I don’t want WordPress files to replace the top-level index file or other HTML files of my existing domains, but only to operate within the designated /weblog subfolders.
[Off-topic: Quick esthetic/readability comment -- the gray background of each comment text-block on your blog is too dark.]
THANKS in advance!
Bruce Mewhinney | Feb 27, 2006 | Reply

An addendum to my previous post….
The main point is that I want to keep my server at its present version# (Mac OSX SERVER 10.3.8). But my intent is also to run lastest PHP and MySQL with the new WordPress 2.0.1 on that same server. I would prefer to use:
– The most recent PHP updates as packaged by Marc Liyanage at….
http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/
– MySQL 5.0.18 as listed at….
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html
In effect, I want to stick with my fast, rock-solid, slightly older version of the OSX SERVER software (10.3.8) while also using the latest WordPress, PHP, and MySQL. Anybody out there doing this mix or similar?
THANKS in advance!
Michael Doig | Feb 27, 2006 | Reply

Hello Bruce,
I don’t have too much experience running 10.3 Server. However let me try and answer your questions to the best of my knowledge. Each one of your sites needs it’s own installation of WordPress if you want 4 separate blogs. Once you learn how to install WordPress you will fly through the process. As long as you keep WordPress in a sub-folder of the site you shouldn’t have any problems with it interfering with the index file of the main sites. WordPress is pretty versatile and running it with the latest installations of PHP and MySQL should pose no problems. If none of your sites are live yet you should just test it out. The great thing about things like WordPress is if you mess up you just delete everything download a fresh copy and try again.
Good Luck,
Bloggie | Feb 28, 2006 | Reply

Man you are brilliant thanks for sharing this
Bloggie | Feb 28, 2006 | Reply

I have almost the whole thing workin but I have one question.
Does anybody knows how I can I set the right permission to folders in the mamp environment?
I need to set a folder writable.
Thanks
Michael Doig | Feb 28, 2006 | Reply

In OSX you need to right click on the folder and go to get info. Once you are there you can adjust the permissions at the bottom of the list.
Good Luck,
R. Smith | Feb 28, 2006 | Reply

(Forgive my ignorance. When I’m scrolling through all this I’m mostly thinking, “What are these people talking about?”)

When you say “MAMP is really designed for running your site â€œlocallyâ€” do you mean that I can put a site together on my desktop without doing it while online to a host server? How will I get the site published on the server once it’s ready? Will I be running WordPress in a browser when I’m working on my site? Why does this save money, or does it? Will the MAMP installation on my desktop mess with anything else I have installed?

Thank you!

R.S.
Bloggie | Mar 1, 2006 | Reply

I have tried that Michael but that doesn’t work any other suggestion?
Andy Roberts | Mar 10, 2006 | Reply

Michael, I’m completely switching from hosting multiple websites for multiple clients on IIS to Mac OS 10.4. With Apache’s Virtual Hosts, will I be able to install one or more blogs for each of my clients (each with their own domains)?

-a
Michael Doig | Mar 10, 2006 | Reply

Hey Andy,
It sounds to me like you should be able to do it, but maybe this article will be of more help. http://www.sitepoint.com/article/virtual-private-server
Velanche | Mar 18, 2006 | Reply

Hey thanks for the tutorial….never knew MAMP existed. Should be great for a testing environment. Will give it a try soon, but have three questions.

1. I’m currently hosting a blog and a podcast on a remote web account (shared domain). I’m using Blogger, but use the external FTP option to upload files remotely. Can you point me to info that will tell me how to backup the necessary blog files currently on the server so that I import them into WordPress once I have the template and other files finished?

2. On my testing machine w/MAMP, what’s the best way to export my finished work from my local test account to the remote server once I’m satisfied with the look and feel of the blog?

I appreciate the assistance; thanks much!
Michael Doig | Mar 18, 2006 | Reply

Hello Velanche,
http://codex.wordpress.org/Importing_Content should get you going on moving from blogger to wordpress, and http://cyberduck.ch/ will allow you to ftp your theme to your wordpress site.
Good Luck,
Velanche | Mar 18, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for the reply, Michael. Asides from a tiny glitch, everything worked nicely. The install was pretty smooth, and I’m very happy that I’m able to work on the blog from my Apple user account instead of my admin account. I don’t know if there’s a way where I can turn on the servers via MAMP in the user account, but probably best not to for security reasons. But nice to see the generic blog pop up in my browser. Should get interesting. Thanks again!
Tuomo | Mar 22, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for the tutorial. New Mac-users like me needs this kind of simple hand-in-hand turorials. Everything works well but blog works quite slowly, does anyone know why?
Michael Doig | Mar 23, 2006 | Reply

I just realized this morning that I am a MAMexPert. I think I need to make a CafePress shirt.
Bruce | Apr 1, 2006 | Reply

Yet another note of thanks; I installed MAMP + WP following your instructions last Xmas. Since then most of my effort centred on importing my old content from iBlog, but I also played around with K2 to try and get a unique site design. I went “live” with DreamHost on Mar 16 and have no problems moving from MAMP on localhost to their servers. I agree with Tuomo that MAMP ran slow, at least compared to my DreamHost installation. And it was so much easier to install on the Mac; it took me most of a day to do the same on a Windoze box.
Tracy | Apr 2, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for your tutorial it’s been so helpful. I wondered if you could help with the problem I’m having of of upgrading to WP 2.0.2 in MAMP? I followed the instructions on the Codex site, but when I try to click on the admin login I get a page that says I don’t have permission. (I’m sure I didn’t have that problem the last time I upgraded from WP 1.5.2 to 2.0)

Any help would be much appreciated.
Carlos | Apr 2, 2006 | Reply

Thanks ,Michael for an excellent tutorial, but your 15 min. estimate was way, way off. It took me all of 20 min. And thanks also to the others who posted questions so I wouldn’t have to.
Mishel | Apr 4, 2006 | Reply

JEG VIL HA LITT IS!!! ELLERS
Kevin | Apr 4, 2006 | Reply

I got the installation just about done, but I got the following message:

“There doesn’t seem to be a wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started.”
Michael Doig | Apr 4, 2006 | Reply

You need to save the wp-config-sample file as a wp-config file. Read the paragraph that starts Since I know all of you have the program…it’s the very last scentence.
Good Luck,
Tracy | Apr 6, 2006 | Reply

Hi Mike
I tried the force-upgrade script that I told you about, but now MySQL Server won’t work properly. When I click on Open Start page I get an error message Error: Could not connect to MySQL server! Every time I click on “Stop Servers” My SQL Server won’t stop – the radio button stays green.

I tried re-downloading MAMP and installed it, but I still have the same problem. Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?
Carl | Apr 13, 2006 | Reply

When I try to view the blog from another computer (on the same network), using:
http://g3.local:8888/wordpress/

I can see the blogs text but there is no CSS or graphics. Viewing the source shows plenty of instances of “http://localhost:8888/wordpress/etc/etc”.

Is there a way to get the CSS and images working when the site is viewed from another computer on the network?

Cheers
Eddie | Apr 13, 2006 | Reply

Hi Mike,

I am a newbie at wordpress but I managed to follow through the entire tutorial and was successful. So, whats next for me, if I want to publish the blog on my domain. Do I just upload the wordpress folder?
Caroline | Apr 21, 2006 | Reply

Worked great, no problems with OSX 10.3.9 and using the new MAMP v1.2.1… and in LESS than 15 minutes! I’m excited about my new capabilities! Thanks for the tutorial!
Neil | Apr 23, 2006 | Reply

Many thanks. I’ve been tearing my hair out over this.

Neil
Jon Wright | Apr 23, 2006 | Reply

Well done!!
I have been looking for something like this for sometime now and it was on the wordpress site all along. Doh!!
KC | Apr 27, 2006 | Reply

This guide is a great help to getting WordPress up and running locally. Thanks!
John H. Farr | Apr 27, 2006 | Reply

Well, everything is fine until I try the installation (/wp-admin/install.php ). All I get is a page with a buncha gobbledy-gook and the message that I have already installed WordPress. Huh? Well, actually, I have, on the site listed when I posted this. But I’m trying to do the MAMP thing so I can work locally on another site. No go!

Wassup?
John H. Farr | Apr 27, 2006 | Reply

To be more precise, here’s what I see when I try to run install.php:

hide_errors(); $installed = $wpdb->get_results(“SELECT * FROM $wpdb->users”); if ($installed) die(‘

‘.__(‘Already Installed’).’

‘.__(‘You appear to have already installed WordPress. To reinstall please clear your old database tables first.’).’
‘); $wpdb->show_errors(); switch($step) { case 0: ?>

ReadMe documentation at your leisure.’), ‘../readme.html’); ?>

I hunted through MAMP and found that there are no tables in my “wordpress” database, ergo nothing to “clear.”

Er… wassup?
John H. Farr | Apr 27, 2006 | Reply

Okay, I got it: could NOT install WordPress from /wp-admin/install.php, no way, no how. Then tried going to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/, where a friendly message said I apparently hadn’t installed WordPress yet. No kidding. But there was an “install WordPress” link, so I followed that, and BAM! There I was, installing the blog.

Still don’t know how that came about, but it’s all functioning now. Thank you Mike and the very cool gang at WebEdition for MAMP. I love this stuff.
andy | Apr 30, 2006 | Reply

Thanks James for the tutorial. Am hoping you may advise with some queries. I set up WordPress to run on my Powerbook G4 a year ago using the suppled Apache/PHP with no problems. Running flawlessly for a year. I have just bought an IMac (intel) and have set it up the same (inluding the Tiger socket change to php.ini). It works – sort of – but each http request takes about two minutes! Completely local files, sits there ‘connecting to localhost’ for about two minutes and then suddenly delivers the page almost instantly. As I am not Apache knowledgeable I am now looking an MAMP as a seconary solution.

What I want to achieve is having my WordPress site running on the iMac but still access it with my PowerBook over the LAN. As MAMP seems top be sidestepping the normal route for this, will I still be able to do it? Will I get to the ‘site’ (on the PowerBook) by http://LAN-IP:8888 for example?

Sorry – that was an overlong comment just toi ask a simple question but I donlt wantg to install yet another layer and not get the result I am after…

Thanks for any advie you may be able to offer…
andy
andy | May 2, 2006 | Reply

I don’t have a clue why I called you James! Anyway ‘Michael’ I downloaded MAMP and while it is superb I don’t think it can do what I need. So no worrying about replying thanks.
andy w | May 5, 2006 | Reply

What an awesome tutorial! Thanks Michael – I was able to get WordPress up and running on a mac mini in under 30 minutes. Not bad for an Apache/Php/MySql noob. I was curious however, there is a version of wordpress offering multiple-user/multiple-blog capabilities. It is known as “wordpress-mu”. Would I be able to install and use this version in the MAMP environment too?

Thanks,
Andy-
Michael Doig | May 5, 2006 | Reply

Hey Andy,
You can use MAMP for anything that runs in an Apache, PHP, and MySQL environment.
Good Luck,
Andy W | May 5, 2006 | Reply

I was exploring wordpress-mu, and even tried it out, but gave up after a number of unsuccessful attempts. Alternatively, I came across a mod to allow a single wordpress install to be able to host multiple blogs, within one database…

http://chetan.gotdns.com/blog/?p=18

but after trying it, i’m sure I’ve messed something up, as it is not working. Do you (or anyone else reading this blog) know of how to implement multiple blogs within the MAMP/Wordpress install?

Thanks,
Andy-
David L | May 5, 2006 | Reply

thank you Michael Doig for your helpful tutorial for installing MAMP. i have wordpress running on my localhost and also on wordpress.com.

i need help knowing what files to uploading, as well as how to publish posts from my localhost to wordpress.com using an ftp client – i tried connecting to wordpress.com using my username and password, but not having any luck.

i have my wp-config.php set to localhost should i have set it to wordpress.com?

thanks for any help in advance
david
Chetan Narsude | May 7, 2006 | Reply

Hi Andy W,

I read your comment about the my post on single wordpress install supporting multiple blogs. If you would like me to see if I can help out with the problem you are having, please drop me a line.

–
Cheers,
Chetan
andy w | May 15, 2006 | Reply

thanks for the offer Chetan. Very gracious of you. However, I think I’ve headed down another road. (at least for the time being)

I am trying to set up MAMP/Wordpress to power blogs for a few websites. I would like to have my Mac (running MAMP) to serve as the back-end for the databases, since the hosting servers do NOT run PHP, or MYSql. I would like to store the wordpress databases within each site’s directory.

Is this even possible?
If so, how might I configure MAMP to power the wordpress blogs, while the site and database content live on another machine?

Thanks in advance for any tips
Andy-
cindy | May 16, 2006 | Reply

Would anyone be able to explain why I receive the following error when I try to open http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php :

To view this page, you need to log in to area “Restricted Area” on localhost:8888.

?

I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks!

cindy
Chetan Narsude | May 20, 2006 | Reply

Andy I am not clear on what you want. You want to host PHP and Mysql on your Mac. Sounds like you have everything but the bandwidth needed to host a website.

Anyways, you can connect to mysql over the internet (although insecure).

–
Chetan

PS: My rant about this wordpress is one does not get notified when someone responds to your post. Is there a plugin which emails out the response?
Mischa | May 21, 2006 | Reply

Can I use MAMP to publish my site on a registered domain name eg. http://www.mischa.com?
Velanche | Jun 3, 2006 | Reply

Greets:
I’ve been tinkering with WordPress and MAMP on and off for awhile, and I’m back on now by deciding to create my own templates/design. So it’ll take a bit a work, but I’m looking forward to it.

What I’m looking for is info on how to transfer my finished WordPress site to my domain account. I realize that I can FTP the WordPress directly to the server, but what’s the proper way to import the “wordpress” database?

I’m using Mac OS 10.3.9, WordPress 2 and MAMP. Thanks for any help on this.
Kanel dj | Jun 3, 2006 | Reply

Michael, thanks for the very quick reply and for the suggestions. Others have done it and I was thinking of giving it a shot. I guess I will have to see where to go from here. Cheers!
Ron | Jun 11, 2006 | Reply

Thanks so much for this, Michael! Very well written instructions. I couldn’t have done it without this tutorial. It’s people like you who keep us going. Cheers!
Yvonne | Jun 15, 2006 | Reply

Thanks, I really appreciate this! =)
Tom Buckley | Jun 16, 2006 | Reply

Hi Michael,

Your tutorial looks like it’s exactly what I need but I’m having trouble with the first step. After I install the widget and start servers, I can’t can’t open the start page. Another widget that tracks my networks briefly shows something called Powerhouse in red but it disappears after a few seconds. I’ve tried this on my iMac G5 running 10.4.6 and on a new MacBook pro using the intel version of MAMP. Could some of my network settings be incorrectly set?

Thanks!

TB
Tom Buckley | Jun 16, 2006 | Reply

Hello again.

Looks like I’m making progress. When I started working on this, I just skimmed the comments. After a more careful read, I was able to access the page and download WordPress. Looks like I’m on my way.

Thanks!
Jay Kidd | Jun 18, 2006 | Reply

To those who are having problems with the first click of install.php, where we were greeted with a webpage of unformatted codes instead of initialisation and subsequently a nice install page:

Switch to Firefox (for this initial step). Start a new page and paste this into the address box:

http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

I read it here somewhere but it was not properly explained. Now I’m back using Safari and everything’s fine.
Andy | Jun 21, 2006 | Reply

I was exploring wordpress-mu, and even tried it out, but gave up after a number of unsuccessful attempts. Alternatively, I came across a mod to allow a single wordpress install to be able to host multiple blogs, within one database.
Immobilien mieten kaufen inserieren | Jun 24, 2006 | Reply

nice plugin, thanks for work, more plugins for wordpress here : Word press and here P-Lugins

and custom themes here: WordPress themes download
Gregg | Jun 26, 2006 | Reply

Thank you Michael! Yer a peach!
Counterintuitive (to me) is the fact that one is to use ‘root’ as the password, instead of a, well, password.
Your tutorial is gorgeous, and I hope to give back to the web as well.
Again, thanks!
matt | Jul 2, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for the writeup. Thank heavens for MAMP. I’ve tried to go it alone on an install of apache et al with the hopes of being able to design locally for php. What a confusing mess. MAMP takes all those problems away.

Has anyone had any difficulty when it comes time to export your site to the web (database, code, etc). Does MAMP facilitate that process in any way?
Amin | Aug 1, 2006 | Reply

Michael, very good tutorial, well written. I do most of my ‘real’ work on a PC and upload to a live server, but I know I should test first. Installing MAMP on a Mac is much easier than trying to do the same thing on a PC – in my opinion.

I think it’s probably a very good idea to do the learning on a local machine that nobody else can see. Especially if you like to tinker with coding when it’s late and you’re tired – as I do!
Uzbekman | Aug 8, 2006 | Reply

Hello,

I installed MAMP (on MAC OS X 1.3.9) and when I push the OPEN START PAGE button Safari is not able to open the page.
Here are the things I see on browser:

http://localhost:80MAMP/htdocs/myforums/index.php

Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Client sent malformed Host header
Apache/1.3.33 Server at home.local Port 80

What is wrong?
cole bretts | Aug 9, 2006 | Reply

Hi there,

If your looking for an automated, hands free way to begin earning bundles of cash 10 minutes from now then head on over to http://www.typeathome.biz
ivan | Aug 12, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for this Michael

I’ve followed your instructions and have 1 wordpress and 2 textpattern instalations running on it. The problem is that I can’t get any email to be sent from those instalations, be that from contact forms, new comments alerts or anything genarated there . Have it happend to anyone else?

Thanks for any help on this.
Daniel | Aug 12, 2006 | Reply

thank you very, very, very much!
This is the really five minuts installation (on local), now i can edit my blog loccally… at last!
Jeff | Aug 15, 2006 | Reply

Very cool. Having a problem installing the widgets plug-in though. It won’t show up in Plug-ins. Is this a MAMP issue?

Also, what do I need to do to move my WordPress blog over to my internet server after I’ve got it like I like it in MAMP?
alvaro | Aug 24, 2006 | Reply

Thanks a lot, I used MAMP 1.0 , and follow the instructions word by word, in my case, I’m not english spoken, I’ll change or clear in your manual…
” Next you need to run /wp-admin/install.php and when…”
to
“Next you need to run[hit the link] http://localhost:8889/wordpress/ /wp-admin/install.php and when…”

Also you have in this line localhost:8888 and not 8889 as you use in this GREAT example.

Thanks a lot, Thousands.
Now I’ll be doing this theme changes offline.
Chris | Aug 25, 2006 | Reply

Totally perplexed ~!@~@
I have tried everything listed in this blog..
I run: /wp-admin/install.php
and I continuously get a garbled WordPress page starting with:
wp-config.php file. I need this before we can get started.

The wp-config.php file is present, can anyone help?

OS 10.3.9
MAMP 1.3.1
Wordpress 2.0.4
mgirando | Sep 6, 2006 | Reply

Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to make such a clear and thoughtful walkthrough. Really took the guess work out of what was looking like a really daunting task.

Youve made me one happy guy! haha
Smicky | Sep 10, 2006 | Reply

Hey this is awesome! Thanks so much for this tutorial. i am up and running in less than 15 mintues! Also, for those of you that are having problems….dont forget to change the name of “wp-config-sample.php” to “wp-config.php” before you try to use the link to install. This fixed any problems I was having.
…Now, is there was just an easy way to import my current site to my local version…
Phil | Sep 14, 2006 | Reply

I had a HELL of a time w/ MAMP. How I finally got it working was to download it, log out and back in, then install it without opening any other program. FINALLY! Before it would not start the servers, even after a restart. I had to trash it and start all over again. So, if anyone else get the widget that hangs fur-eva, now you know what to do!

Thanks again!
Patricia Martin | Sep 15, 2006 | Reply

First of all, thanks for your tutorial. It’s a great program for newbies like me!

I have been using mamp in order to completely set up a wordpress blog before moving it to an actual webserver. (i have even tested posting and stuff to see how everything looks like before actually going online & public)
Now I have lots of doubts, the first one being what is the best way to move my blog from the development environment onto the remote server?

The second is: once the blog is all set in the local server, do I have to go and reinstall and reset every single modification I made like changing the putting the remote server’s web address intead of the “http://localhost:8888/” in any single graphic I uploaded, plugging setting, etc, etc. I’m afraid I will miss something and the whole theme will break up.

I appreciate any help.
Cameron | Sep 19, 2006 | Reply

I’ve followed the instructions but what I’m trying to do is to serve a WP blog out to the outside world. In following the instructions, everything seems to work properly but no one from the outside can accessmy weblog.
Ian | Sep 23, 2006 | Reply

Very easy to follow! I was up and running in under 15.
Ryan | Sep 23, 2006 | Reply

Your tutorial was easy to follow and made the install as smooth as could be. Thanks. Ever try installing WordPress MU with MAMP? I’ve spent about two hours on it with no luck. Any advice?
Patrick | Sep 25, 2006 | Reply

After selecting /wp-admin/install.php I get this error message:

hide_errors(); $installed = $wpdb->get_results(“SELECT * FROM $wpdb->users”); if ($installed) die(‘
‘.__(‘Already Installed’).’
‘.__(‘You appear to have already installed WordPress. To reinstall please clear your old database tables first.’).’
‘); $wpdb->show_errors(); switch($step) { case 0: ?>
ReadMe documentation at your leisure.’), ‘../readme.html’); ?>

But, no previous version has been installed. I have deleted the database and recreated it. I also tried to create a database with a different name and update that in wp-config.php. I also tried downloading a fresh copy of MAMP and WordPress and I still get the same error.

I’m at a loss. Thanks for any help.
Matt | Sep 26, 2006 | Reply

Great tutorial, Michael.

What drew me to your blog in the first place, and what seems to be missing from almost all documentation of MAMP (and the body of the tutorial) is what must seem obvious to anyone who has used MAMP and/or locally hosted servers — but it was completely obscure to me and (from reading the comments) to most first time’rs:

The URL/URI for running one’s local files is a mystery.

Logic says that, if the application MAMP produces a start page whose URI is:

and the application itself is named MAMP, then a directory lodged inside another directory named “htdocs” should be addressed like this:

“Of course it isn’t!” you respond right away. But the new user does not know that.

I suggest making that one piece of information explicit at the appropriate place in your tutorial (where the user needs to run “wp-install.php”). I would guess it would clear up the fog for 90 percent of new users.

Again thanks for a great tutorial.
Matt | Sep 26, 2006 | Reply

Oh crud; forgot to protect my links in the previous post!

http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language=English

is of course the MAMP start page link.

http://localhost:8888/htdocs/index.html

is what a user might expect to follow from that.
Jen Armstrong | Sep 27, 2006 | Reply

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Thanks Michael. I was dreading the installation of WordPress on the server, but installing it on my Mac is one step closer and using your tutorial was a breeze. Many thanks. Jen
Randy Walden | Sep 27, 2006 | Reply

To echo many others here, I too found the tutorial a joy to behold… Seriously, it rocks! It has saved me untold number of hours alternating between screaming and typing!

A question, however… I travel extensively and find I wish to use my ‘localhost’ version of WP when I don’t have any connectivity. I can observe the changes and make any further changes to text or design in a flash. I realize that MAMP is designed specifically for running a local version of a blog, but what’s the best way to upload those changes to the server to make them ‘live’? Am I missing something here… Is it not easy…?

Is there an intermediate app of some kind that will ‘sync’ the two or do I literally have to upload the database and pertinent files each and every time (ACK!) Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Running Tiger 10.4.7 on an Intel Mac.

Cheers! Well done.
Mark Hooffman | Sep 28, 2006 | Reply

Hi
Download goes fine except I get a Stuffit error message (Unexpectedly quit)However when I go to install the widget I follow your promppts but all I have open is “start servers” there’s no”stop ervers” and nothing happens when I hit that button on the widget. The progress whell keeps going forever. I’ve reinstalled the software and widget 3 times. same thing. Running Tiger so any suggestions

TX Mark
Daniel | Oct 14, 2006 | Reply

I am using osx 10.4 but I don’t get the mamp widget to work properly
even though I have made some changes of code. Could someone help?

Is it poosible to run mamp and the built-in osx apache/mysql at the
same time? For me, that doesn’t work…

Thanks,
Daniel
milo317 | Oct 15, 2006 | Reply

Good points, i’ll definetely give it a try now, thanks.
Tom | Oct 27, 2006 | Reply

Thanks for posting this tutorial. It had me up and running in 15 mins. Good stuff….
David | Nov 1, 2006 | Reply

THANK YOU, MICHAEL!

I’ve SO wanted to get a test setup on my Mac, and tried a year ago with PHP and MySQL and my own wits. It failed then, but THIS was so easy.

I have a great opportunity to do work for a developer and this was KEY to getting my operation going. I’ve worked with WP on my wife’s blog for over a year on an actual server, but this was important for me to develop professional sites without an external server.

Kudos!
web design | Nov 10, 2006 | Reply

I learned enough about MySQL and phpMyAdmin from messing with WAMP that it was easy to import my site with little help. But I give most of the credit to this tutorial.
Ian | Nov 15, 2006 | Reply

I am wondering how I can set up the directories in the mamp http docs so that I can test multiple different blogs on my mac. I got one to work but the admin login always goes to the default wordpress dir.
John | Nov 15, 2006 | Reply

Thank you! With your help I was able to install alocal copy of my website for testing. Now if I could just import the database,its over 90MB and I can’t get it to import at all. Any suggestions?
daina | Nov 20, 2006 | Reply

Got it working :)
Ok I’m a total newbie…How would I put this live on my website now? I know how to ftp and have a website already. Thanks! sorry dumb question ;P
Jones | Nov 21, 2006 | Reply

Well, based on your suggestions, I assumed the installation would be rather easy – and much to my surprise, it was even easier than I assumed! So far, it is a very attractive package, thanks!
daina | Nov 30, 2006 | Reply

ok so i got it installed live, however, when i copied all my blog i have developed over to live ( and then edit the config.php file) – i get a clean slate! but i uploaded the version with all my changes and posts and design changes, but on my server i’m stuck with starting all over again! HELP plz!???
brian | Dec 3, 2006 | Reply

can i install
Eryckx | Dec 6, 2006 | Reply

Daina,

I seem to have the same problem with my blog. Do you get an error message from WordPress?
Joshua C. | Dec 7, 2006 | Reply

I travel extensively and find I wish to use my “localhost” version of WP when I don’t have any connectivity. I can observe the changes and make any further changes to text or design in a flash. I realize that MAMP is designed specifically for running a local version of a blog, but what’s the best way to upload those changes to the server to make them “live”?
Chris | Dec 9, 2006 | Reply

I must be missing something:

1. Intalled MAMP, swithed to PHP 4
2. Created a database (wordpress)
3. Copied WP to htdocs (/wordpress)
4. Setup wp-config.php just like it should be
5. Servers are humming
6. No problems starting the install… choose a name, input email…

Then my browser just hangs around at Step 2 forever… (Now weâ€™re going to create the database tables and fill them with some default data.)

…no username and password, just Step 2…

Well WordPress exists at http:/localhost:8888/wordpress/ but I can’t log in, never got to choose my user/pass…

Even went into phpMyAdmin to verify and change user_login, user_pass, user_nicename under wp_users…

Nothing works, I must be missing something really obvious here… what about ‘Collation’ (‘latin1_swedish_ci’ which set itself) when I create the database? Anything special to do there?

I’m out of ideas. Please help.
canlÄ± tv | Dec 19, 2006 | Reply

can i install
JDR | Dec 22, 2006 | Reply

Great tutorial.

The only thing I would add is a caveat about securing mySQL. Minimally, people ought to change the root password to something other than “root” and be aware that a default setup will include unsecured anonymous accounts.
Paulus | Dec 24, 2006 | Reply

I’m still working on 10.2.8, because of my G3 Beige. Could somebody tell me where I can find a MAMP version that fits? Version 1.4.1 requires 10.3 or newer, as I understand. I can not find older versions.
pearse | Jan 2, 2007 | Reply

“Write down the host, user, and password which should be localhost, root, and root. However look at the example they provide and you will notice they enter localhost:8889 which will be important later when we install WordPress. Click on the phpMyAdmin link.”

where in gods name is the phpmyadmin link? its not on the mamp widget its not on the mamp menu in the finder. tried making one on my server on the net.

where the phpmyadmin?
pearse | Jan 2, 2007 | Reply

sorry, great tut, sorry abotu my past comment.
you see, i had mamp before and i messed around with it. and where you put “/MAMP/” in the start page/url. wasnt by default there, so it caused some confussion.
LÃ¡szlÃ³ Patai | Jan 3, 2007 | Reply

Thank for the excellent instructions.
MIKE VALIANTINO, SERVER-HOSTING PARTNER | Jan 3, 2007 | Reply

We recently implemented MAMP for X Serverhosting and has now 9 MAC customers with no problems, even so people are complaining about the template listing in opera and other no-so-big browsers. The WordPress is perfect add-on for our webhotels and are now used by around 1.200 webhotel customers.
cbjkelvin | Jan 4, 2007 | Reply

the guide is useful and everything is working. But how can i installing simple forum machines (smf 1.1.1). please help me, i’m all confuse.
cbjkelvin | Jan 13, 2007 | Reply

did i always need to run the MAMP while i edit my websites?? how can i publish my websites to the net? when i publish the websites do i need to always open the MAMP?
can i just edit my websites with the internet line? or i can edit the website without the MAMP.
leo | Jan 18, 2007 | Reply

I dont know but why i don find such informative and profitable blogs so often,I suspect blogging world is becoming so small that we cant find such lucrative blogs like this one.
I think you make more blogs for this type. Than we take a lots of information for it.
wch | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply

michael – thanks for the pointer. after spending several hours struggling with a mysql install (unsuccessfully) i found your tutorial and MAAP. ten minutes later i was up and running! awesome – wch (ps – never got the widget to work though…)
bluetooth.boy | Jan 25, 2007 | Reply

How i can install Worpress MU?) Give a link
matt | Jan 29, 2007 | Reply

I can’t get past step 1 of the install. It says log in with the username “admin” and password “%2$s”.’). for the life of me, nothing works! Anyone?
andy | Jan 30, 2007 | Reply

Well, I tried this today man and didn’t even find your tutorial until after I was stuck. So reinstalled my mamp & wordpress. Darn thing won’t recognize the wp-config.php. I didn’t move it and I know I edited it correctly, can you let me know what might be the problem?
Wouter | Sep 21, 2007 | Reply

Dear Michael,

Before finding your page, I had wasted many days trying to get MySQL installed locally, typing obscure stuff in console, making me unhappily think back to my Windows days.

Your instructions were great. Got WordPress up and running within 20 minutes. Many, many thanks!!
rochester fosgate | Sep 22, 2007 | Reply

thanks, took me 20-30 minutes to do. everything works perfectly
hairball | Oct 2, 2007 | Reply

when through your tutorial for mamp I’m getting the following :

Error establishing a database connection

This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at localhost:8889. This could mean your host’s database server is down.

Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
Are you sure that the database server is running?

I’m at a loss
Stew | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply

Hi,
I have everything loaded and working, but what I’m unclear of is how to integrate the mamp stuff into my real site hosted by wordpress, or can I do that? Do I actually have to get an independent host apart from WP in order to update and make changes to the site with mamp?
I’m pretty new at all of this, but I’m very eager to learn.

thanks!
Dave | Oct 5, 2007 | Reply

MAMP is working great. I’d love to share with my co-workers either by migrating to my built-in web sharing capabilities. Anyone have experience migrating their MAMP setup to Apple’s websharing?
narayan | Oct 6, 2007 | Reply

I had to move the wordpress folder into my ‘Sites’ folder and not Applications/MAMP/htdocs to get this to work
Sam | Oct 7, 2007 | Reply

After I install MAMP, I get two green lights, but the start page that opens includes only the followingPHP code:

I would be extremely helpful if anyone here can help me figure out why this is happening and fix it. Everyone says how easy MAMP is, but I have spent at least 8 hours fiddling with this, reinstalling,etc, and this comes up every time. Running 10.4.8 on intel Mac Book.
Dave | Oct 8, 2007 | Reply

Thanks for the tip Naryan. I have done this and am closer, but I get this error:

username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at URL/wordpress. This could mean your host’s database server is down.

Do you know what I need to do to properly point the site the the “wordpress” database that I created back in my MAMP folder?
narayan | Oct 8, 2007 | Reply

Dave, check your wp-config-sample.php is configured as per the instructions. I used SubEthaEdit rather than text edit for this job which may cause some problems if it saves the config file in rtf format. Also check your username and password details on the Mamp startup page.
Dave | Oct 8, 2007 | Reply

I copied by wordpress folder to user/library/webserver/, but the wordpress database is still back in the MAMP folder. where do I move that or properly point it to wordpress’s new location?
Jörg | Oct 12, 2007 | Reply

Thanks – helped me set this up while cooking dinner :)
Yola | Oct 24, 2007 | Reply

just to say thank you for this tutorial. yes, it worked in 15 minutes, even though I don’t know the first thing about php mysql etc.
if all tutorials were like this…
perfect! thank you for making this a successful evening.
Laurence James | Oct 31, 2007 | Reply

Thanks Michael

That took me 30 minutes. Just wanted to point out that the link for the start page is http://localhost:8888/MAMP/?language
and you need to create a database called wordpress using phpmyadmin

The rest is plain sailing!

Thanks again.
ruggero | Nov 1, 2007 | Reply

Great tutorial…

Though…something stopped after installing the widget onto the dashboard.
Followed your intruction until:
“select php 4 on the back. Click done, which takes you back to the front and then click stop servers. When the progress wheel stops click start servers. Once they start, click Open Start Page. The page that pops up….”

This page NEVER pops up!

What do I do?
(working on MAC 10.4.1)

Please advise…;-)
The Black Hornet | Nov 14, 2007 | Reply

Great tutorial. I used it on my machine and set up a friend’s machine with it.
Kristi | Nov 14, 2007 | Reply

I just wanted to say a big thank you for this clear tutorial. It took me less than 20 minutes after reading your great instructions to get WP going on my Mac. Now I can confidently work on some sites I am developing under some deadlines that were making me nervous! THANK YOU!
Thomas | Dec 6, 2007 | Reply

Excellent tutorial. Took me almost no time to do. Thank you very much.
Nathaniel Buck | Dec 29, 2007 | Reply

Thanks a lot for this tutorial. It was extremely clear and easy to follow. I believe that downloading MAMP was the longest step. Thanks again!
Chire | Dec 29, 2007 | Reply

Three years later and another version of OSX, this tutorial was still a huge help. The widget didn’t work for me, so I just used the application. Thanks for saving me hours of figuring this out on my own!
James | Jan 6, 2008 | Reply

Thanks, you saved me about 3 hours as I haven’t done this for about a year.
Jim Carlson | Jan 9, 2008 | Reply

I just installed wordpress using MAMP on a mac powerbook running OS 10.5.1. Worked like a charm. (Thanks!!) But I am using latex code to display mathematics, e.g.,

$latex a^2 + b^2 = c^2$

This piece of text appears as-is, rather than being texed. I do have tex installed and can, for instance, access them via the command line: tex foo.tex or latex foobar.tex. Anyone know how to configure things so that latex is invoked and the page is properly displayed?
Faeye | Jan 12, 2008 | Reply

Anyone having problems getting the wp-config.php file to be recognized when you go to

http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

should try the following:
1). Make sure there are no spaces after the filename. ie: “wp-config.php “. it’s not easily noticeable, but check to make sure. resave it without the space. delete the other file, by looking at its creation timestamp so you will not be confused later. :-)
2). Use an editor like Smultron to make sure the file is not saved as a Rich Text Document (.RTF file).

Hope this helps!~
Liz | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply

great! thanks! works on leopard, too! :)
3Easy | Jan 16, 2008 | Reply

Thanks, this is an excellent piece of documentation. On my system [MacBook 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, OS X 10.4.11] this went off without a hitch, including the Widget.

I am also becoming a fan of Coda from Panic for development needs. It took a moment or two to get Coda configured just so, and the documentation for that [with a link back here] is there ->

http://groups.google.com/group/coda-users/browse_thread/thread/e280d48b3d718bcb?hl=en

Cheers
3Easy
Doug Avery | Jan 21, 2008 | Reply

Thanks so much for posting this, it helped me get started and install EE on MAMP very easily. The n00b community is in your debt.
dawn | Jan 28, 2008 | Reply

Thank you so much for typing this out! I really appreciate it! Now off to play in my sandbox. :)
ian | Feb 5, 2008 | Reply

mike
thanks a lot for this

i did it in 5 minutes and i’m closing in on a social security check!

i personally really like smultron better than text edit and text wrangler

mamp is a spectacular program
ian
Graham Smith | Feb 8, 2008 | Reply

Hi M
I have been playing around with DIGG and have DUGG you on this article. WHich by the way I used a couple of weeks ago and it’s great.

I have DIGG BLOGGED it, which means I now have your article on my Blog, but it references it to you and DIGG.

SO i guess this is OK with you. It’s a valuable article so good to spread around.

Regards

Graham
ImJustCreative
“On: Creativity within Life”
Jeremy Cherfas | Feb 13, 2008 | Reply

Wonderfully helpful. I needed to do a local install to tweak some parts of my blog, and this post was perfect … as soon as I figured out how to get the MAMP start page. :)

Many thanks.
ed | Feb 20, 2008 | Reply

This was, by far the easiest and most simple way to accomplish a WP local install on OS x10.5 however… now that I have the local version of my site looking and running like I want to, just how in the world do I publish this? I am sure that there is some guide somewhere, but these (last ) instructions would be a much valued adition to your excellent post (or at least a link to how to do this)?

Thanks again, I am forever greatful,

Ed
Alpay Erturkmen | Feb 21, 2008 | Reply

Hi, great article for starters. Thanks for your help.
kirk Wheeler | Feb 25, 2008 | Reply

Thanks! I’m sure you saved me a ton of headaches trying to figure this out piecemeal from a dozen different sites.
Patrick | Feb 27, 2008 | Reply

15 minutes? More like 4. Thanks
Johnny | Mar 11, 2008 | Reply

I got it installed in under 10 minutes and I can get to the default theme, local server/MAMP running great but only one minor problem. When I try to log in to my admin page I enter my correct user/password but get this message:
“ERROR: WordPress requires Cookies but your browser does not support them or they are blocked”

I have cookies enabled and have tried all other browsers with cookies enabled without success, other than that it works :-)
Tim Courtney | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply

Thanks for the simple tutorial, I was up and running in 10 mins!
Johnny | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply

It works now, I had to re-install MAMP so thank you so much! Now let’s get to work! :-)
Rich | Mar 12, 2008 | Reply

I got this to work fine – thanks! I would like, however, to copy my presently online database and import it in place of the newly installed wordpress files on my MAMP server. When I tried this, I was redirected to the online URL . . . any suggestions?
Kathy | Mar 17, 2008 | Reply

Hi, Thanks so much for doing this tutorial. I got everything up until http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

It’s blank. In fact, any page that I try to look at is blank.

Any idea why?

Thanks again!!
Kathy | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply

I figured it out. Just had to walk away for a while. I accidentally deleted the apostrophe (‘) before “wordpress”

Thanks so much! I couldn’t of done it without this tutorial!!!!!
nibs | Mar 24, 2008 | Reply

Hi, thanks for this great tutorial!!! I use it to have my own multimedia diary on my computer. As a complete newbie I wonder if there are any additional security modifications that have to be done running your mac as a ‘server’?
Thanks again for sharing your knowledge :D
otogaz | Mar 26, 2008 | Reply

Thanks so much for posting this, it helped me get started and install EE on MAMP very easily. The n00b community is in your debt.
PG | Apr 14, 2008 | Reply

Just a quick note to say THANK YOU for this tutorial. I knew that setup would be simple and easy but was hitting my head against a brick wall working it out until I found your tutorial – much appreciated.
james | Apr 14, 2008 | Reply

Great tutorial!
Alex Palma | Apr 18, 2008 | Reply

Thank you for this article because its really informative, i love reading your article and i hope that i will read some more about this stuff, its really informative and very entertaining. thanks a lot and have a great day. hope you can also visit my site by clicking my name ~ god bless ~
Drew | Apr 19, 2008 | Reply

Thanks for writing this post. I was following WordPress tutorial and I couldn’t figure out what the problem was until I saw your post and realized that I didn’t have the correct port number or password in the DB_HOST filled in. I wish I’d started here as I would have saved a lot of time!
Kathy | Apr 20, 2008 | Reply

Hi, So this works wonderfully for me.

My concern now is how do I get the site up on my hosting root folder (or even subfolder to test for sure) w/out losing all the links, etc.

I looked at the tutorial on WP Codex and am very confused by this.

Do you have anything? Your tutorial is the only one that was as detailed for dummies like me! :)

Thank you!
Bob Bussell | Apr 25, 2008 | Reply

Hi Mike!

Great site!

Hey, here’s a thought/questions from the linux universe I sometimes inhabit. Maybe it will work on mac osx, maybe not. To get this wordpress blog off of localhost and onto the web set up dynamic IP hosting.

I used to run an apache web server from a dell dinosaur rescued from my apartment’s trash. It was relatively easy to set up and cost nothing.

Take it easy,

Bob
fksr86 | May 6, 2008 | Reply

mamp is running very slow if a page request more than 20 posts. what’s happenning?
chris | May 12, 2008 | Reply

Thanks for this!
Francine | May 30, 2008 | Reply

Thank you for the tutorial — it was really clear and easy to use. I think I may have gotten everything set up in less than 15 minutes!
Diane Root | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply

I hope you can help…I am downloading Mamp on my Mac (10.4.11) and following your directions. The widget is on my dashboard but I cannot “open start pages” so I can complet the information you mention to install WordPress locally on my Mac. Thanks so much for your help…Diane
Diane Root | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply

oops forgot to click notify me if you comment…
ali | Jun 20, 2008 | Reply

Mamp seems to be working fine, Apache and MySQL are working and I can get to my Mamp homepage. The wordpress folder is in the htdocs folder and I changed the wp-config.php file to match the settings on the Mamp page after making a database (database:wordpress, user:root, password:root, localhost:8889).

However when I go to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php to complete the install it says “not found on this server”. I can’t figure out what’s not working. Thanks in advance for your help. -Ali
ann | Jun 25, 2008 | Reply

thanks so much! this is totally perfect.
lisa | Jul 18, 2008 | Reply

Im on safari and I did not have a problem until I reach “Next you need to open http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php” when I open it it just says that , that weblink cant be found on the server .?? could some one help I have checked it over and over.
I did call my Database something else than wordpress is that the problem ?
Thanks
John H. Farr | Aug 1, 2008 | Reply

Now I have a new problem.

I want to run an older version of my blog using MAMP, so I can retrieve some of the old posts. I can import the old database just fine, but the URLs all default to the current site domain! Replacing the current domain with “http://localhost:8888/” leads to a server error, aarghh.

There must be a way to fix this. Otherwise, I may have to temporarily revert to the previous database using the actual server (not locally with MAMP), and how stupid is that?

I just may be about to find out…
Elisa | Aug 4, 2008 | Reply

Excellent tutorial. Thanks!
Mikael | Aug 10, 2008 | Reply

More than one site locally?
Hello and thank you for the excellent tutorial. Very easy, very well written. I’m working on my first site right now, dabblling fairlessly with the css’s and the php’s… And I have a short question:
- can I have more than one wordpress blogs/sites up and running locally? I mean, if I work on more than one project, can they be stored in different folders somehow?

Cheers and MANY thanks,
/Mikael
Michael Doig | Aug 10, 2008 | Reply

Mikael – Absolutely, just set up different folder for your various sites. To access them just change the path to those folders in your address bar.
Satchie | Aug 14, 2008 | Reply

Hi, I´ve been struggling to start WordPress, I followed directions step by step, database, username and password are correct in the wp-config.php file, the host is localhost:8889 and the route to open the index.php -in order to see if everything is Ok- is localhost:8888/wordpress/, and I keep getting the “Error establishing a database connection” message, lights on Mamp are both green, any ideas? am on Mac OS X.5…
Michael Doig | Aug 14, 2008 | Reply

My best advice would be to delete everything and start over, or close everything and restart your computer. Good luck.
Clint | Aug 19, 2008 | Reply

Hello

New guy here…once I have created my blog locally, does someone know of a tutorial for uploading it to my host. I know this may be obvious but I want to make sure.

Thanks everyone.
Aaron | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply

Lifesaver. Thank you.
roger | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply

michael,
i read a lot of “this was so easy” comments.
so, i was excited to get started.
after downloading my MMAP widget and stopping, then starting serveers, i click “open start page” and nothing happens.
i am using mac os 10.5.4
so, now what?
i have restarted mac and still nothing happens.
Gadfly76 | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply

I’m stuck on the step in dashboard. I clicked “start servers” and the progress wheel is spinning. I can’t open the start page. How long does this take? I’ve been waiting on the progress wheel now for a long time. Any thoughts?
David | Aug 24, 2008 | Reply

Hi,
I just installed wordpress on my remote server, but then saw your nice intro to MAMP here, so I went ahead and used it to install wordpress on my mac. I guess my assumption was that one might do this so that you could work on your wordpress blog when offline, then upload it when you can get online. Is this common? possible? or is it just mostly a tool for testing?

Thanks!
Eddie | Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

absolutely flawless, and really detailed, walk through, thank you very much indeed.
Michael Doig | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply

Gadfly76 – If you are having trouble with the widget, try starting the servers from the actual MAMP application.

David – You can upload everything from MAMP to a remote server. I think it is time for me to create a tutorial on how to do it.
Anita | Aug 31, 2008 | Reply

Hi,
Great tutorial! I’m trying again this year with questions. I’ve searched for ages on typical Dreamweaver Mac settings with MAMP / WordPress and no one has gone far enough with their tutorials. Now my http://localhost:8888/wordpress/ is messed up because I’ve changed the Dreamweaver Remote and Testing Server Info window links so many times. My biggest issue is with the Remote settings and especially the Testing Server / URL prefix settings syntax. The examples online don’t go far enough cover this scenario. Thanks.

Screen shots with specific questions here:
http://www.anitahartweb.com/mamp_dw_wp_questions.html

If anyone could actually help me, it would be amazing!
Niall | Sep 2, 2008 | Reply

Thanks for the tutorial Michael, very helpful.

I did get stuck at one point and this was when I was installing WP. When asked to fill out the config details I made the mistake of changing ‘localhost’ to the port number ’8889′. Then I twigged I should have left it as ‘localhost’. Wasted a few minutes but all working now.
Bluekat | Sep 5, 2008 | Reply

Nice easy to follow tutorial…

Thanks
Cosmo Kramer | Sep 6, 2008 | Reply

I installed MAMP it worked for awhile and then everytime I tried to create a new wordpress install the page that tells you your username and password stopped popping up. WordPress installs fine, I just don’t receive my password, so I can’t login. Can anyone help me with this?
and Juanma | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply

-first great tut it was really easy to install in my imac & macbook air… cool!

Now i’m trying to figure out how to see 192.168.1.2/wordpress from another computer from the same network… i can only see the file directory /wordpress… when i click on the link it gives me an error.

BTW Thanks, thanks mike for being 2 years o so answering our questions…
Leland | Nov 4, 2008 | Reply

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is an invaluable resource.
Bjarni | Nov 10, 2008 | Reply

Thanks Michael,

Your instructions made it very easy to set up WordPress on my machine, much appreciate.

Bjarni :)
Sim-O | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply

Very clear and concise instructions.
Thank you very much.
Jon | Dec 9, 2008 | Reply

Trying to get PEAR accessible under MAMP, but I’m completely stuck, probably on some stupid syntax error that I’m making. I’ve tried looking everywhere, I can re-download PEAR, (but its already there under MAMP in PHP4 and PHP5) but I can’t get php to recognise that it is. Either I need to add something to the php.ini file, like a path, or add a php.ini file to the MAMP php folder. But in neither case do I know how. The only php.ini I can find is in /Library/Application Support/living-e/MAMP PRO/conf/php.ini Is it possible that any kind soul here can help me out. I’m sure there’s something simple I’m overlooking, but for the last day I can’t find it. PS, WordPress installed no problem, thanks!
Jay | Dec 20, 2008 | Reply

Great job. Still totally relevant and accurate 3 years after being written. :-)

But…

I’d sure like to know how can setup MAMP, MySQL and use the existing in-place Mac Apache installation so that I can use the built-in Websharing
Tracy YOUNG | Dec 26, 2008 | Reply

Fantastic! Thanks a million.
Alex | Dec 30, 2008 | Reply

I’ve had a blog for a year now but I’ve recently started to want to improve the quality and make it something that people will want to read. For this, I want to edit my theme and heard that having WordPress installed locally was the way to go.

Thanks to your great post, I was up and running in 5 minutes instead of 15. Thanks a lot.
Jan | Jan 7, 2009 | Reply

I used your tutorial to install MAMP on my computer and it is up and running beautifully. I have a blogger blog that is self hosted which I would like to convert to WordPress.
1. How do I go about setting up another wordpress blog using MAMP?
Do I have to go through and create another mysql database or can I use the old one?
2. Will I be able to use wordpress folder twice in the htdocs folder or can I call it something else and still get wordpress to work?
I am completely new to all this and really need help.
Kate | Jan 16, 2009 | Reply

Thank you so much for the detailed walkthrough. Everything went off without a hitch.
hospital | Feb 10, 2009 | Reply

Nice easy to follow tutorial…
jargoneyes | Feb 15, 2009 | Reply

Another good MAMP and Mac tutorial:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/quick-and-easy-wordpress-development-on-a-mac-with-mamp/
Katie | Feb 26, 2009 | Reply

I never could figure out where to put things so they were on my local “server” or how so access them. Thanks for spelling it out for me.
remo | Feb 27, 2009 | Reply

Installation fantastic. but how do i publish it now? I am a super beginner.. can someone pls help? thanks!
Anita | Feb 28, 2009 | Reply

Hi,
Your tutorial is great, thank you. But I’m still wondering: if the FTP local/remote folders are the same (like most tutorials display) would I make them both the same settings in Dreamweaver?

** Local Info **
Local root folder: Macintosh HD:Applications:MAMP:htdocs

**Remote Info:**
Access: Local/Network
Remote folder: Macintosh HD:Applications:MAMP:htdocs
(or do i just leave remote to none until site is finished?)

Also, can I leave off :WordPress at the end as well? I would think anyone who FTPs would be able to assist. No one has covered this in any online tutorial or been able to help. Thanks!
lane | Mar 5, 2009 | Reply

I have done everything you have said to do and I still am not able to get to it…

Mamp seems to be working fine, Apache and MySQL are working and I can get to my Mamp homepage. The wordpress folder is in the htdocs folder and I changed the wp-config.php file to match the settings on the Mamp page after making a database (database:wordpress, user:root, password:root, localhost:8889).

However when I go to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php to complete the install it says “not found on this server”. I can’t figure out what’s not working. Thanks in advance for your help. Lane
Rich | Mar 11, 2009 | Reply

Hi there – this is a very nice tutorial – thank you!

I’m running into a little hitch – when going to the local site (http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php), I get the following error:

“Can’t select database

We were able to connect to the database server (which means your username and password is okay) but not able to select the wordpress database.

* Are you sure it exists?
* Does the user root have permission to use the wordpress database?
* On some systems the name of your database is prefixed with your username, so it would be like username_wordpress. Could that be the problem?”

I believe I have everything configured correctly in the wp-config file, but I’m not sure quite why this is happening.

Any thoughts?

TIA!
rich
Rich | Mar 11, 2009 | Reply

OK, ignore the last post – doh! I got it working – forgot *one little thing* – didn’t install the database in phpMyAdmin properly…

Sorry to waste your time, and thanks again for this great little tutorial!

best,
rich
ana | Mar 26, 2009 | Reply

mamp is not working i cannot start the page??anyonw that would like to help?
RJG | Mar 29, 2009 | Reply

I just successfully installed WordPress locally. I had the same problem with getting a formatted page with the same raw code you listed. Though you seemed to solve it with an off-book workaround, sometime later in another post you said you are having trouble accessing older versions of your page. My suggestion: check your code carefully in the original wp-config.php file. Your original problem was caused by bad/missing code in that file (mine was a missing colon). That file may still be affecting your setup.
David | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply

****** I M P O R T A N T *********

HEY GUYS don’t forget to create the database using phpmyadmin (inside MAMP there is the button to launch it) and name it ‘wordpress’

Also, don’t forget to follow me on twitter :P

http://twitter.com/David_Vera

******* P R O B L E M S O L V E D *********
Tim Brandon | May 1, 2009 | Reply

Hey thanks for the tutorial! Super awesome, just got it to work, and it looks awesome. Been trying to do this for the last week….a lot easier than i thought it would be, I always think something will be more complicated then it is. Cheers,
Tim
Judi | Jun 11, 2009 | Reply

I got stuck at the place where my servers should have started but never did, I clicked on “Open start page” and nothing happens, is there something I missed?
Bianca | Jun 23, 2009 | Reply

Ha! Cool! Worked like a charm! This tutorial rocks!
Christine | Jun 29, 2009 | Reply

Thank you so much for posting this info. Worked like a charm and saved me a lot of frustration!
Molly | Jul 10, 2009 | Reply

Love this tutorial. I’ve been designing a wp-blog locally with MAMP (which I installed with this tutorial), and now I need to put the blog up on the Web.

I read through all the comments, and I don’t think I saw the answer to this question… how does one transfer the files to the Web? Do I just pull my “wordpress” folder out of MAMP into a local folder?

If I missed the answer to this question, I apologize… there are a lot of comments on this popular tutorial. :)
psa | Jul 12, 2009 | Reply

Wow! I did not think I would figure that out. Thank you! Great job!
Rita Lim-Wilby | Jul 26, 2009 | Reply

Michael, your directions were amazingly clear and accurate. Thanks for getting me started! Rita
Armaan Ahluwalia | Jul 28, 2009 | Reply

Thanks this post really did help me alot. I was piecing information together but you helped me “figure out” that you have to enter the same information from the start page into the wp-config.php file!
Remy Frank | Aug 26, 2009 | Reply

Much thanks for the tutorial. I’m a total novice and am still stuck at the part:
Next you need to open http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php. Once it’s done you will be given a username and password. Write these down because you will need them to get in to the admin account. Now if you navigate to http://localhost:8888/wordpress/ you should see your default installation of WordPress.

I have copied the WordPress files to the htdoc folder, I have updated the wp-config.php file, so far everything looks correct. But, when I paste: http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php into my browser, I get the following error:
Not Found

The requested URL /wordpress/wp-admin/install.php was not found on this server.

Apache/2.0.59 (Unix) PHP/5.1.6 DAV/2 Server at localhost Port 8888

Can you point me in the right direction? Much thanks!
Philro | Aug 31, 2009 | Reply

Thanks for sharing this. I know it takes time to do and you often get a little slapped around in comments for sharing your process (vs others). Your tutorial was brief and complete! Well done I was on in less than 15. Thanks again!
bisnis internet | Sep 7, 2009 | Reply

Thanks for making this tutorial, very helful.
Katie Chen | Sep 8, 2009 | Reply

thanks for the post Michael! it helped me out so much. Keep up with the good work :)
Rob G | Oct 10, 2009 | Reply

Moving an online version of WP to MAMP can leave the MySQL database still set to log in and out of the web-based version of the blog. Change the siteurl value in the database.
http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/site-url/
Marcelle | Oct 20, 2009 | Reply

Michael, I love you. Thank you so much for posting these instructions. WP’s instructions were not helping me, and I was so frustrated all morning. But now I’m all set up and ready to go. Thanks!!!
Christina Perry | Nov 1, 2009 | Reply

Michael,

Thank you so much for this great tutorial. I was baffled when I got hit with all this server stuff, but your instructions helped me get through the complications and I really did get up and running in less than 15 minutes.

Much appreciated!

Christina
Thomas | Nov 4, 2009 | Reply

To those who can’t get install.php running:

When you enter:

http://localhost:8888/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

DON’T. Just enter:

http://localhost:8888/wp-admin/

I don’t know why it works now, but it does.
David Challinor | Nov 24, 2009 | Reply

Thanks very much for the tutorial Michael! It’s very well presented and I got up MAMP+Wordpress up & running on my machine in about 10 minutes.

The only thing is (being 2009) I selected php5, and also I didn’t have any luck using the widget method but I ended up on the Start page anyway when I tried clicking the MAMP icon.

I had been putting off doing this for ages until I stumbled on your tutorial. Thank you very much!
Jeff | Dec 6, 2009 | Reply

Hi Everyone… I installed MAMP and WordPress succesfully. I even went to the page to type in my blog and copied the password given. However, I can’t seem to log back in…. I type in Login: admin and Use the new password that I changed from MAMP… I not able to login succesfully and start using the dashboard. Can someone pls. help…. Im losing sleep over this darn problem… Many thanks, Jeff
jpg001 | Dec 11, 2009 | Reply

hi,

with mamp in local i have a problem with the upgrade of the plugins and new wordpress version

wordpress ask me :

information about my connection
Pour lancer la requête demandée, vous devez donner les informations requises.

host name :
Identifiant
password
connection:
FTP
FTPS (SSL)

what is the good answer ? is it possible to upload the upgrades throught wordpress in local?

thank you

thank you
Al | Dec 14, 2009 | Reply

HA!!! Have been struggling with getting WordPress working for 3 hours, read your instructions and realised the error of my ways. Thank you so much.

Al
knifecreative | Dec 16, 2009 | Reply

thanks heaps for this – you are a timesaver!
Kayle Simon | Jan 9, 2010 | Reply

2 questions: does this work in leopard, and;

do you have directions for moving the site BACK online after you have it looking the way you wanted?
Trazee | Jan 13, 2010 | Reply

I messed up my login info on my MAMP page. Can I just delete the app then start again? It has an error message that says ” access denied”. Its only me messing things up : – )
Laura | Jan 17, 2010 | Reply

Thanks for posting this.. it worked great until I got to the install part. For some reason, I’m having no trouble finding the file, but my browser just tries to download the php file rather than opening it in the window.

What am I doing wrong?
Laura | Jan 17, 2010 | Reply

I figured out that MAMP has to be set to PHP 4 instead of PHP 5.
egrommet | Jan 31, 2010 | Reply

Thanks, I’d been strugging with the verion on the wordpress codex and found this a doddle! Two minutes flat vs 30 minutes of angst
steven | Feb 7, 2010 | Reply

thank you for those clear instructions. I struggled to get up and running using the instructions on the wordpress site, but now i’m in. Thank you for the clear instructions.
Coolcatch | Feb 8, 2010 | Reply

you rock! thanks man

I have done this many times before but your instructions were very clear and simple

I think it was under 15 min.

cool
now I need to get to work.
Jens | Feb 8, 2010 | Reply

Thanks!
Great tutorial
michelle | Feb 16, 2010 | Reply

You just saved me hours! thanks for the post!
One Million Monkeys | Feb 19, 2010 | Reply

Thanks

I really appreciate that you have made this tutorial. I always return to it, when I need to set up a new wp.

/One Million Monkeys
Araucan | Feb 22, 2010 | Reply

Thanks a lot !
Usaful and very clear !
Tricia | Feb 25, 2010 | Reply

Thank you so much! Very very helpful info :)
Eric | Feb 26, 2010 | Reply

Fantastic tutorial. Worked like a charm. I had first tried a tutorial from someone else and could not get it to work. Glad I stumbled onto yours.
cmgray | Mar 10, 2010 | Reply

This is great! Thanks!

What if you are customizing widgets and other elements of your dashboard/wp-admin? when you upload your contents to the web, how do you make sure that all of your dashboard settings are retained? do you upload the widgets.php file in wp-admin?

Thanks!
frank | Mar 23, 2010 | Reply

Hi Michael, thanks fpr great tutorial. Have it all set up and working on Mac. My wordpress folder is in htdocs in the mamp folder in applications. How do I hook this up for ftp? I’m using coda and am wondering what the server name etc is? I’ve tried localhost:8888 and 8889. localhost on its own and 8889/8888 in the port number but not working. and suggestions?

Many Thanks

Frank
Sterling | Mar 29, 2010 | Reply

Amazing. So easy. Thank you so much!
Tim | Apr 27, 2010 | Reply

Hi there,

This is a couple years on, but just wanted to say thanks for this tutorial – used it many times to install wordpress on MAMP. Much easier to understand for a newcomer like me than the ’5 minute install’.

Tim
Carol | Jul 8, 2010 | Reply

Thanks a lot for yet another first-rate WordPress tutorial. I am always on the look-out for awesome WordPress tips to suggest to my readers. Thanks for taking the time to write this post. It’s exactly what I was searching for. Truly great post.
Mehmet | Jul 12, 2010 | Reply

Awesome walkthrough man.
diane | Jul 17, 2010 | Reply

thank you so much! this was insanely helpful!