Updating MAMP Pro 4 on Local Development Server

MAMP Pro recently released version 4. It has not been without issues – more on that later, but here is how to go about updating MAMP Pro.

The steps for updating MAMP Pro are similar to those found in the standard/free version of MAMP. An earlier tutorial on upgrading MAMP can be found here, but this time I am covering steps that address MAMP Pro. The steps for updating MAMP Pro differ because the location of the files you need to backup has changed.

1. Opening MAMP Pro will alert you to a new version upgrade. Click the notice to visit mamp.info and download the latest version of MAMP.
2. Go to your user Applications folder and rename the MAMP directory to MAMP_OLD or similar.
3. Go to /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO and copy the db folder to your dektop.
4. Unzip the installer and double-click the .pkg file to start the install process then verify with your password.
5. Once the installation completes, go to your MAMP_OLD folder and drag the htdocs folder into your new MAMP folder, replacing the one that was created on installation.
6. Open Finder to the path in step 3 and replace the db folder with the one from your desktop.
7. Launch MAMP and you will be greeted with a ‘what’s new’ screen. You will also have to enter your registration code for version 4. If you bought an upgrade key, you will need to enter the license key from version 3.

I mentioned that I have experienced a few issues. MAMP had to release several updates (4 within 2 weeks) because of a range of problems users were having. I have installed MAMP updates on El Capitan and Sierra macOS and had several problems with invalid hosts files. MAMP Pro was not recognising my localhost as a valid destination when I used my Sites directory. It only worked using the htdocs location and this has been a real pain. So too has been the process of several incremental updates and the need to wipe them from my system to get MAMP running properly. Adding the 2 license keys every time became pretty tedious too.

As a result of the recent issues with MAMP I have been looking elsewhere for a new option for local development work. If you are a WordPress theme designer or WordPress website designer, you might be excited by a fairly new solution for local hosting – Pressmatic. This is the easy way to install WordPress on your Mac and I hope to be posting more about it soon.

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