Running local copy of an old WordPress site on MAMP

  • Hi there,

    I need to update some stuff on an old WP site (hasn’t been updated for years), which I plan on doing locally.

    I am able to run the latest default version of WordPress (4.9.5) on MAMP, following the stages in this tutorial: https://managewp.com/blog/how-to-create-a-local-copy-of-a-live-wordpress-site

    However, I when I pull down my WordPress site via FTP and import the exported database from the remote site (I followed the steps in the guide above for this also), it does not run in the browser, instead it just trys to download the index.php file…

    I figure this may be something to do with conflicting versions of WordPress + PHP, but my knowledge doesn’t stretch far enough to work out what. The original site (that I’m trying to run on localhost) has the following specs:

    Wordpress version 3.1
    Apache/2.2.34
    PHP 3.5.2

    I’m wondering what could cause this site not to run? I seem to not be able to run this version of WordPress on MAMP…I have tried various .htaccess scripts (including the default WP one) and this does not seem to do anything. Nothing is in my apache or PHP logs either. Is there something I’m missing? What does one need to be aware of when trying to move an old WordPress site onto localhost?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • What happens when you try to view a different PHP file outside of the WordPress installation?

    If that displays correctly, then I’d look at the .htaccess fiel on the WordPress site. At most you can delete it and re-generate it by resetting your permalinks.

    If it doesn’t show and tries to download it like it does with your WordPress files then it means that you don’t have PHP running on your local environment, and because of that, the server is doing what it thinks it’s meant to with that file by forcing a download.

    Thread Starter biscuit93

    (@biscuit93)

    When I run a phpinfo(); script outside of the WP installation (i.e. in the htdocs folder in MAMP) it runs fine and brings up all the PHP info.

    When I delete my .htaccess file, the browser just throws a 500 error…I’m not sure how I could reset my permalinks, as I cannot load WordPress at all locally (I can’t get into the admin et.)? Do you mean from my remote server?

    Now that you’re getting a 500 error that’s a good start. Now you can start debugging by setting the value for WP_DEBUG in your wp-config.php to ‘true’ to show the actual errors so you’ll know where to look.

    Thread Starter biscuit93

    (@biscuit93)

    Ok good. However when I set WP_DEBUG to true in my config file, the browser still does not show anything…should I be looking in a log file somewhere for this? Apologies, my WP isn’t knowledge isn’t great as I mentioned.

    Normally you’ll have an error log file from Apache, so see what you can find. I don’t use MAMP myself, so I’m not 100% sure of where it will be stored.

    Thread Starter biscuit93

    (@biscuit93)

    Ok, so the error will not show up in the browser? I just looked into the apache logs and found:

    client denied by server configuration: /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/.DS_Store

    I’m confused as to why this would point to the .DS_Store? I tried deleting the .DS_Store and I still have the same issue :/

    That’s something with MAMP, and not WordPress itself. With a quick search, Iv’e found these resources that may help. If not, you might want to ask on a forum that can help with MAMP.

    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8413042/client-denied-by-server-configuration
    https://superuser.com/questions/827810/apache-client-denied-by-server-configuration-after-mac-os-x-upgrade-to-yosemite
    https://teamtreehouse.com/community/mamp-wordpress-database-error-denied-by-server-configuration

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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