Recently we published an article about how to install WordPress on your Windows computer using WAMP. As expected, we started to receive emails from our readers asking how to install WordPress in their Mac computer. Actually it is quite similar to Windows and in this article we will show you how to install WordPress locally on Mac using MAMP.
MAMP is an easy-to-install compilation of Apache, MySQL, and PHP bundled together for Mac. Using MAMP you can install WordPress on your Mac and test drive it. Most WordPress developers and designers use MAMP on their Mac for development purposes. However, your website on MAMP is only visible to you. In order to make it live you would need WordPress hosting.
How to Install MAMP on Mac
Go to the MAMP website and download MAMP. Once the download is finished, open the downloaded file. Drag and drop the image file inside it to your Applications folder. Follow the on screen instructions. You can now launch MAMP from Applications » MAMP.
Note: MAMP also installs MAMP Pro, so remember to click on the right one.
Before you get started, we recommend that you configure it to your liking. Click on the Preferences button to change the options. You will see a new dialog box. Lets start with the Ports tab. You need to enter ports which will be used by Apache and MySQL. Enter port 80 for Apache, and 3306 for MySQL. Setting Apache to use port 80 will allow you to access your local websites from http://localhost instead of http://localhost:8888. However, using port 80 also means that each time you start servers you will have to provide the admin password of your computer.
The next step is to set document root. Document root is the folder where you will create and store your websites. In the preferences dialog box, click on Apache and select the folder where you want to store your websites. Ideally, you should store your websites in a new folder inside your documents folder. You can name this folder anything you want, htdocs, mywebsites, wpdev, etc. For the sake of this example, we will call it mysite.
Click OK to save your changes. On the MAMP app screen make sure both Apache and MySQL servers are running.
Installing WordPress on Mac
Download a copy of WordPress from WordPress.org. Extract the zip file, copy the wordpress folder inside it and paste it in your MAMP document root folder. Rename this folder to anything you want e.g. mysite.
Click on Open Start Page button in MAMP application window. A new browser window will open. Click on phpMyAdmin from the top menu bar.
phpMyAdmin is a web based application used to manage MySQL databases. In phpMyAdmin click on Databases and then create a new database. You can name this database anything you want. We will use this database name in the next step.
Open a new browser window and type http://localhost/mysite. If you re-named the wordpress folder to something else, then use that name here. WordPress will notify you that it was unable to find wp-config.php file. Click on Create a Configuration File button.
On the next screen provide your database information. In the database name field, enter the name of database you created earlier. For database username and password fields use root. Use localhost as your database server.
WordPress will now connect to your database and create a configuration file for you. After this it will show you a success message. Click on Run Install button to proceed.
On the next screen, WordPress will ask you to provide your website information, choose a username and password, and enter an email address. Fill in the form and then click on Install WordPress button.
WordPress will now run the installation script, create tables inside database and set up your website. You will see a success message once the installation is complete.
That’s all, now you can run WordPress on your Mac using MAMP, just like you would run WordPress on a live web server. Just launch MAMP application to start your local server and use WordPress. Once you have played with WordPress on your localhost, then you can install WordPress on a live site.
Migrating from MAMP to Live
After numerous request via twitter, facebook, email, and comments in this post, we have written a guide on how to move WordPress from MAMP local server to a live site. Hopefully you guys will find it helpful when you are ready to deploy your local site to production.
We hope that this article helped you install WordPress on Mac using MAMP. For questions and feedback please leave your comments below.
Hey! Kindly update the article….can’t work out which thing is which……
thanks , it is really helpful
Thanks! Worked well.
Hi, thanks for the great post! I have MAMP installed since a WordPress training I took suggested it. Does having MAMP serve as a localhost for testing my site serve the same purpose as using a subdomain as a staging site? I’ve read your articles on the latter, and am trying to understand. I guess one difference would be that if I used the MAMP method, I would always have to use my Mac; if I used a subdomain and just made it private, I could test from any computer. Am I thinking of this correctly? Basically, I am a beginner planning to start a blog, and want to make sure I have a testing environment. Thanks!
Hi Andrea,
Yes, using MAMP you can create websites on localhost. These websites will only be accessible only on your computer. A staging website is on a live server that can be accessed using any computer.
Be aware that with MAMP 4.1.1 and PHP 7.1.1, you will see phpMyAdmin grayed out. The solution is to go into MAMP click the PHP tab and change PHP to 7.0.15. Presto !
By default MAMP shows only two versions of PHP , so if you don’t see 7.0.15 on list then rename folders with PHP versions you don’t want to use in the Applications/MAMP/bin/php folder.
I have changed the database charset in creating database tables, now I can not view my wepage or even in wp-admin. How do you find the database names from MAMP on a mac to change the database name back? Thanks
When I’m in “phpMyAdmin”, I don’t see the tab “databases”, neither all the other options in the menu. I just see a table (grey and purple)… Someone know what I did wrong ?
Is there a newer version of this tutorial to go along with the current version of MAMP? The screenshots here are very different. Also, the instructions to create the document root aren’t very clear – first you advise putting it in a new folder in the Documents folder (which I did), but then you make it seem like it’s supposed to be in the MAMP folder in the Applications folder! I can’t get my localhost page to come up… This is my folder tree thingy…
Macintosh HD\Applications\MAMP\htdocs\WEBSITES\name\wordpress
What should my localhost address be?
I’ve also tried putting the WordPress folder here…
Macintosh HD\users\me\documents\WEBSITES\name\wordpress
I’m very confused.
From the MAMP webpage click “my website”, 2nd from the left on the menu.
That will take you to the localhost site.
were you able to find a new tutorial?
This is so helpful..!! Worked like a Charm.
I installed everything – brilliant – and was working on installing a template from template vendor. It asked to select a Cherryframework zip file. I did and then everything went blank. I’ve not been able to see anything since. I realised I had selected the wrong Cherryframework file – not the one in the template folder but one from outside that I had downloaded earlier and just had in my “new website’ folder.
I don’t really want to have to start from scratch. when I look at all my previous history I just get blank white pages.
Help!
Many thanks guys, couldn’t have gone anywhere without you
I’m developing WordPress sites locally and then move it to a live server when i’m done. But when i start new projects locally I don’t really know how to handle the old files from previous work and databases?? Shall I just delete database, files and everything and start again??
Okay, so I setup my wordpress page using MAMP on my mac a few weeks ago and it was working and I was able to use edit the content. But going back to it now, I can’t seem to edit, just view my page. I start MAMP, go to the ‘WebStart Page’, click ‘My Website’ from the menu bar and choose my page. It loads, but I don’t see how I get to the WordPress editor??
Please help…
We hope you have tried accessing your website’s admin area by visiting the URL:
http://localhost/wp-admin
This URL may differ depending on how you installed WordPress. Let’s suppose you installed it in a folder mysite, then your login URL would be.
http://localhost/mysite/wp-admin
Also check our guide on how to find your WordPress login URL.
It is unclear where to create the file below. I did not see this in MAMP or in the new window. If you are going to take people step by step in doing something, you need to be CLEAR!
Open a new browser window and type http://localhost/mysite. If you re-named the wordpress folder to something else, then use that name here. WordPress will notify you that it was unable to find wp-config.php file.
Click on Create a Configuration File button.
Create a Configuration file for WordPress in MAMP on Mac
I have everything installed and working, only I followed other instructions and didn’t use port 80. Plus I ended up using the default site htdocs inside Applications.
Is there a way I can have a do over, and reinstall everything the way you say to. I cannot may my site multisite, which was the whole reason I went down this rabbit hole.
Thanks so much for the article. It is well written and very helpful, just what I was looking for. Just wish I had found it first.
Yes you can uninstall MAMP by simply visiting the Applications in Finder and then deleting MAMP.
Just wondering – what is the whole point of installing this on a MAC if we can work through the WordPress website? I’m trying to understand if I should bother downloading this onto my MAC or if it’s ok to just work through the regular website. Thanks.
Very Helpful Article, from grateful person thinking that I would NOT be able to pull off MAMP then WordPress install. I actually did it!!!
I’m having issues where i don’t get the option to ‘Create a Configuration File’. I have the WordPress database information window first, then I get an error ‘Error establishing a database connection’ screenshot below – but no option to create configuration.
Am I doing it wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
i too am getting the same error. did u find out how to fix it?
I had the same issue. There was an auto generated DB password in my wp-config.php file, so I changed it to ‘root’ and it worked. Obviously you should change your password after you get everything working.
/** MySQL database password */
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘root’);
Thanks for the help folks. 1st time doing this stuff. It helps to have good instructions. Some steps have been automated, but that’s cool. Let’s see how it goes from here. One my way to building my website. Thanks again.
I installed MAMP and got WordPress running, but for some reason my changes to the CSS aren’t being reflected on the page. At first I thought it was a caching issue, until I realized that it’s reflecting other changes, such as adding an item to the navigation menu. It’s the custom.css file it’s not seeing. (I am using Thesis 1.8.5.) Does it have anything to do with my naming the root folder dev-site instead of htdocs? Also my WP installation is directly inside the root folder, not two levels down. Thanks for any ideas you guys might have.
I had this problem too. First I moved the root document folder from my desktop to ‘my documents.’ Then I changed the root in MAMP. When I ‘opened the start page’ I went to phpLiteAdmin and created a database there. Although wordpress said it couldn’t find the name of the database I had created there (I used the phpMyAdmin database name) I think it still got rid of my 404 error not found.
Did you guys change the port numbers?
Thanks to you guys I have successfully installed WordPress on my computer. Now I have one more issue :
I already have a live wordpress blog that runs via the online web version of wordpress at wordpress.com.
How can I access the blog I already created via the web version on the version I just installed on my computer?