Can’t Start MAMP Server or Connect to WordPress

  • Hello everyone,

    I’ve started building my first WP website a couple of months ago. It’s not online yet — I’m running it using MAMP. All was going well up until recently, when suddenly I wasn’t able to log in into WP — AFAIK, I got the “Can’t Select/Connect to Database” error. But that’s not all — the situation unexpectedly worsened when one day I couldn’t start the MAMP MySQL server (the Apache server starts fine), and therefore I also couldn’t even reach the aforementioned WP error message (this is also the reason why I’m not able to quote it exactly).

    I’m helpless — in the time period when I was able to launch the MySQL server and get some life signal from WP, I’ve read as much as I could regarding the notorious “Can’t Select/Connect Database” error, and tried every solution I’ve stumbled upon — nothing helped, and now things are worse, and I don’t know where to start from.

    The website’s database contains what is the results of countless hours of work (that I don’t want to lose or repeat) and some invaluable data, so I’d really like to restore access to the website and refrain from starting it from scratch. I would really appreciate any help whatsoever.

    Thank you so much.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Save your backups onto something like a thumb drive. You can restore or rebuild the server and then use the backups to recover everything in the database.

    If you don’t have backups you might be able to get the SQL server to run once more and then use PHPMyAdmin to create a backup of just the database. From there you might be able to get WordPress back once more and do a good backup from there if possible.

    You can never have enough backups.

    Thread Starter actuator

    (@actuator)

    Hi @jnashhawkins, thanks a lot for the reply.

    My database and rest of important data are safely backed up and stored in Dropbox. I want to gain access back to my website simply because I want to finish working on it. Anyway, I’m more than ready to rebuild and restore the website.

    Thanks!

    JNashHawkins

    (@jnashhawkins)

    I was worried about the backup but you’ve got that covered. That’s great.

    I was thinking further…

    If you want to have more fun with this setup…

    Maybe you have a second PC sitting around? Do the same install there and then try to get the restore working for you.

    Once it’s restored and then working, try to get the first install to talk to the MySQL on the second box.

    That might give you some real insights into what is broken even if you can’t get it fixed or talking together and you’ll learn something right cool.

    Thread Starter actuator

    (@actuator)

    Thanks @jnashhawkins!

    I don’t have another PC (actually, I’m on a Mac) around, but since everything’s backed up, I don’t mind starting over on my current machine. How do I initiate the restore process?

    Thanks!

    JNashHawkins

    (@jnashhawkins)

    Well, now you’ve got me wondering…

    I know almost nothing about a Mac… but I do remember when Apple introduced those first Macs. I think I had a Timex Sinclair back in those days and my clients were running ATM controllers on Bunker Ramo machines. Fun times!

    So hopefully someone here has some input for you. My best guess is you’ll need to delete everything pertaining to the MAMP and start fresh but my gut says ‘No, No, No!”.

    Another thought might be to build on a cheap host somewhere… SkySilk has some very cheap cloud-based servers by the month. On that I’d just build a whole WordPress install and use my backups to ‘migrate’.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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