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Install WordPress on Mac with XAMPP
If you want to install WordPress on Mac OS X, you are always advocated using a local server environment setup tool, such as MAMP or XAMPP. In another guide, we have introduced the free web server package MAMP for Mac with steps to install WordPress on Mac OS X with MAMP. In this tutorial, we will review another free local development environment tool for Mac, XAMPP for Mac, and we will use this app to install WordPress on Mac so you can start developing websites locally, play or learn WordPress with a local WordPress installation without paying for a hosting account. You can build a WordPress site or blog locally on your computer, and transfer it to a real server when you are ready. It is a safe way to test WordPress before publishing online. If you are on Windows, do not forget to check out this guide: how to install WordPress on Windows PC?
How to Install WordPress on Mac?
To install WordPress on Mac with XAMPP is not difficult, there are several steps but just a couple tricky ones. Basically you need to download XAMPP for Mac, then install this software, after that go to download WordPress and install WordPress on Mac. Now let’s dive into the details, specifically by looking at some tricky steps.
Install XAMPP for Mac
Go to download the latest version of XAMPP for Mac from its official site. At the time of writing, it is Version 1.8.2 & 1.8.3. They are compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 or later. The main difference is the script or component versions, for example XAMPP for Mac 1.8.2 is packed with MySQL 5.5.36, PHP 5.4.27, XAMPP for Mac 1.8.2 is packed with MySQL 5.6.16, PHP 5.5.11. However this does not affect our local WordPress installation, because latest WordPress only requires PHP version 5.2.4 or greater MySQL version 5.0 or greater. So both XAMPP for Mac 1.8.2 & 1.8.3 are compatible with WordPress. It’s a DMG file, so I’ll double-click it to open the DMG and mount the volume. Then I’ll double-click the installer application. The first time you run the installer application, you might see this internet security notification. And if you do, just click open.
It’s a DMG file you will download. Double-click the file you just downloaded. Then install XAMPP on your Mac as you would any application, just drag the XAMPP folder to the Application folder to install it.
Go to the Application folder, open the XAMPP folder, you will find a file named XAMPP Control, double click to start XAMPP Control. Now XAMPP for Mac opens its control panel. It is a small panel with three options Apache, MySQL, FTP and a start/stop button beside each of them. To run WordPress on Mac locally, you need to start the Apache server and MySQL server on Mac OS X.
Note: If you can’t start Apache on Mac, try to disable Web sharing from System Preferences… >> Internet & Wireless >> Sharing.
Create WordPress Database in XAMPP
As we have mentioned above, local WordPress requires both PHP and MySQL. Now we need to set up a database for WordPress with XAMPP for Mac. XAMPP offers phpMyAdmin for us to manage databases. We can create MySQL database for our local WordPress installation on Mac with it.
To launch phpMyAdmin, you can directly visit this link in your web browser: http://localhost/phpmyadmin. Alternatively you can also open localhost in your browser, you will be taken to the main XAMPP splash page http://localhost/xampp/index.php, from there you can click on phpMyAdmin to jump to this phpMyAdmin URL http://localhost/phpmyadmin.
To create a MySQL database with phpMyAdmin on Mac, click Databases, choose & input the database name and click Create button, the MySQL database will be created and you can set up your local WordPress on Mac with it in following steps.
Now you have set up everything you need to get started developing and testing your local WordPress on Mac. Continue installing WordPress in just another couple of steps.
Install WordPress on Mac with XAMPP
Download WordPress from https://wordpress.org/download/ to the ‘htdocs’ sub-folder under your XAMPP folder. Unzip the WordPress installer on Mac, after that you should get a ‘wordpress’ folder, now you have the choice to select installing WordPress to http://localhost/ or http://localhost/wordpress. If you want to use just http://localhost/ to access your local WordPress site on Mac through Safari browser, then move all WordPress files from ‘wordpress’ folder to ‘htdocs’ folder.
Create WordPress database connection
From the local WordPress folder, you should see a wp-config-sample.php file, as shows from last screenshot. You will need to rename this file to wp-config.php and edit the connection to WordPress database from there. Remember that we have already created a MySQL database with phpMyAdmin above? Now we need to set up a connection between the WordPress files and its database, or we can say to link the Apache server and MySQL server. Open this configuration file with a text edit on Mac, you will find a section of this php file like below image:
To create database connection for your local WordPress on Mac, you need to replace “database_name_here” with the database name which we have just created using phyMyAdmin, replace “username_here” with “root” and leave “password_here” blank.
Complete WordPress installing from browser
Run Safari or any other browser you have on Mac, open this URL http://localhost/ to access your local WordPress. If you have placed the WordPress files in the sub-directory ‘wordpress’, then browse this URL instead http://localhost/wordpress. You will pull up the classic WordPress setup wizard. Fill up the basic information it requires, click Install WordPress button, your local WordPress on Mac will be created.
Migrate Local WordPress to Web Hosting Server
If you have finished testing and experimenting on the WordPress theme, layout, plugins and widgets on a local WordPress blog on Mac, you may want to move it from local machine to a live WordPress hosting server. Here is some very good WordPress hosting service for your information. To migrate a local WordPress, you have to do it all by yourself, your web host may not be able to help as all the files, database and configurations are on your local machine. Check out this guide and see how to transfer WordPress to cPanel hosting.