Written by Admin on 2025-05-06

How to Download WordPress Site to MAMP

MAMP is a popular local server environment for running website development projects on your own computer. It can be useful for testing new features, designs, and plugins, without having to upload them to your live website. In this article, we will show you how to download a WordPress site to MAMP.

Step 1: Install MAMP

The first step is to download and install MAMP onto your computer. You can download the software for free from the official MAMP website. Once the installation is complete, you should be able to launch the software from your Applications folder.

Step 2: Create a New Database

Next, create a new database for your WordPress site. Open MAMP, start the servers, and navigate to http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/. On the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see an option to "Create Database." Choose a name for your database and click "Create." Make sure to remember the name of your database as you'll need it later.

Step 3: Download Your WordPress Site

Download your WordPress site files if you haven't already. You can do this by accessing your site's files via FTP or using a plugin like Duplicator. Once you have the files downloaded to your local computer, move the folder to MAMP's htdocs directory. By default, the htdocs directory is located at /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/.

Step 4: Import the Database

Now that your site files have been downloaded and moved to the htdocs directory, it's time to import your database. Go back to http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/ and click on your newly created database. On the next page, click on the "Import" button. Select the SQL file that you exported earlier, and click "Go" to begin the import process.

Step 5: Update wp-config.php

The last step is to update your site's wp-config.php file. Navigate to the directory where you copied your WordPress site files (/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/your_site_folder). Locate the wp-config.php file and open it in a code editor. Update the fields to match your database information (e.g., database name, username, password), and save the file.

Conclusion

That's it! You have successfully downloaded your WordPress site to MAMP. You can now navigate to http://localhost/yoursitefolder/ to view your site locally. Keep in mind that when you're ready to deploy changes to your live site or move it to a new server, you'll need to update the URLs in your database. To do this, you can use a tool like Better Search Replace to quickly and easily update all instances of your local URL to your live site URL.