Leopard: Install Local WordPress using MAMP
Posted by David Kirk in Mac OS X Leopard
Installing a local version of wordpress is very easy using MAMP. In fact, the configuration and installation is quicker than downloading the packages. Let’s get started…
Previously I have described how to manually install wordpress and mysql locally on a leopard box. With a failed step or two, the manual installation can be ugly very quickly. MightQ suggested MAMP.
MAMP + WP on leopard is less graceful but much, much easier.
1. Download MAMP
2. While you are installing MAMP, Download WP
3. Mount the MAMP dmg and drag the folder into your applications directory. No not use a subdirectory.
4. You can turn on the mysql and apache servers through installing the widget into your dashboard or by clicking the MAMP application. Start the servers now.

5. Click the Open start page button
6. The Welcome to MAMP page should open. You should record your mysql information that will look similar to this…
To connect to the MySQL Server from your own scripts use the following connection parameters:
Host: localhost
[Port: 8889]
User: root
Password: root

7. Click the phpMyAdmin link at the top of that page.

8. In phpMyAdmin Create new database named “wordpress” (or whatever) and hit the Create button

9. Uncompress and place your downloaded wordpress installation and in a subfolder of your htdocs folder in the MAMP install. In the example below I used a folder named techrx. I will assume that you will use the name “blog” for the purposes of this tutorial.

10. In your wp install, right-click (ctrl-click) on the wp-config-sample.php file and open it in textedit (or your favorite editor of choice)
11. Change the config file to match your mysql settings above. If you named your database something other than wordpress, then use that name instead.
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define('DB_NAME', 'wordpress'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'root'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'root'); // ノand password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost:8889'); //

12. Important to save this file to a new file named wp-config.php
13. Point your browser to http://localhost:8888/blog to start the initiation of your wp install.
(If you placed wp in a different directory, you would replace blog with the name you picked. I used techrx, for example.)
14. Record your temp admin password to log into your install. Change this login password to something easy to remember once you login.
15. Now when you visit http://localhost:8888/blog it should be pointed to your local wp installation.
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October 18, 2008 at 10:56 pm, Alex Miles Younger said:
Thanks so much for this guide. It’s simple, quick, and totally effective. I really appreciate your help and how easy MAMP makes this whole process.
October 19, 2008 at 1:41 am, davak said:
My pleasure. I use MAMP on my MBP everyday. I love it.
November 11, 2008 at 4:10 am, chitiore said:
Thanks for the guide. I followed it and I achieve my goal!!
November 12, 2008 at 10:26 pm, davak said:
Woo-hoo. Enjoy your wordpress installation!
December 13, 2008 at 10:08 pm, Magda Diaz said:
This was helpful but didn’t work exactly this way on MAC OS 10.5
Instead I moved the Blog/Wordpress install to my “Sites” directory rather than HTDOCS and then simply pointed my browser to http://localhost/blog.
Then it worked perfectly.
August 17, 2009 at 9:21 am, jeroen said:
MAMP install and dbasecreation no problem. But can’t make a connection with wordpress. Either in htdocs or sites dir. http://localhost/wordpress says it exists but can’m make connection. Localhost:8888 makes no dif. Using OSX 10.5.8 Any suggestions?
January 01, 2009 at 8:16 pm, Ed said:
you just saved me. i was having a problem figuring out were to take care of the database creation. i was always getting an database error.
It works now. Thanks
January 10, 2009 at 7:07 am, sebastian said:
what about getting the mail function to work when using mamp. when i test for a new user to register it sayssending email but never sends it. how do i fix this?
February 12, 2009 at 5:55 pm, jdreng said:
Great guide!
Just what I needed. Thanks.
February 22, 2009 at 9:13 pm, Hank Paulson said:
Fantastic. Up and running in a few minutes, thanks for posting this great resource.
March 20, 2009 at 4:04 pm, casey said:
thanks for this – up and running in just a few minutes – worked perfectly.
April 10, 2009 at 9:38 pm, iSnake said:
Thank you mate. It is time to build my first web site now
June 20, 2009 at 2:35 am, Morris said:
Great guide – better than that on the WordPress site. Thanks a lot!
July 15, 2009 at 2:14 pm, Anonymous said:
I have never done this before – but it was easy to understand and to follow – well done!
Thanks!
September 09, 2009 at 9:03 am, Hayden said:
Quality article, MAMP works like a charm. Thanks.
September 10, 2009 at 11:35 pm, David Patrick said:
Good job with the tutorial. After installing Joomla on MAMP, I thought wordpress would be just as easy. It was, but just a tad different.
October 05, 2009 at 4:38 pm, Anonymous said:
Bang on!!!
I scratched my brain for an hour looking at the config.sys file. I tried everything and nothing. I have had issues before with non-root usernames etc. But your post and copy and paste and Im past all that and on the road forward.
November 16, 2009 at 4:28 pm, cmode said:
I just read this tutorial and these are better instructions than what’s on wordpress. however, I already installed mamp and wp using those instructions and now that I view my blog, its only viewable when I go to http://localhost:8888/ and not
http://localhost:8888/nameofmyblog
what did I do wrong in the setup?
December 03, 2009 at 12:29 am, José Patricio Espinoza said:
perfect!
tnxz!!!!
December 14, 2009 at 2:35 pm, Ana said:
Thank you! This worked perfectly.
July 01, 2010 at 8:23 pm, Ratstudios said:
Any body got a guide fore MAMP PRO 1.9 to get it running on OSX Server 10.5.8?
“on port 80…”
July 21, 2010 at 8:56 pm, Arto said:
Thank you for this post! Works great!
August 20, 2010 at 12:48 am, Galen Gidman said:
Nice article. I’m not sure what version of WordPress was out when this was written, but now you can just hit the install in your directory, and enter the database information during the install. Great stuff!
April 07, 2011 at 4:38 am, Patrick Berkeley said:
Very helpful. Thank you!
April 07, 2011 at 2:08 pm, David Kirk - Founder/Editor said:
Sweet!
April 19, 2011 at 12:43 am, jamesmage said:
How do you point a browser I don’t get it after step 12
May 12, 2011 at 1:17 pm, Gurdanthomas said:
I think you copy the code and then paste it into your address bar on your internet browser (the place where you would type internet addresses – http://www.myspace etc) – of course I may be wrong – because it’s nbot working for me
May 12, 2011 at 1:16 pm, Gurdanthomas said:
Hi – I feel like I’m the only one it doesn’t work for – tried all the steps – even @d37e09bf8757ac9bc664144a5931b01b:disqus alternative (putting the folder in sites)- either it can’t make a connection or
The requested URL /website was not found on this server.
Apache/2.0.64 (Unix) PHP/5.3.5 DAV/2 Server at localhost Port 80OS is 10.5.7 any suggestions?Cheers
August 16, 2011 at 8:14 pm, mb said:
hi! did you ever figure out your connection problem? i’ve also run into this problem of the server not being found. it worked for a little while, then suddenly the server can’t be found. i’ve searched many forums and tried many solutions to no avail. any help would be greatly appreciated
MAMP 2.0.1; OS 10.5.8