How to fix MYSQL when it won’t start with MAMP

Ever gone to boot up MAMP, apache starts fine but then MYSQL refuses to?

I’ve run into this problem on many occasions and in most cases the following method works:

1. Shut down MAMP.
2. Open Terminal or iTerm and type ‘killall -9 mysqld‘ (Note you may need to type ‘sudo‘ at the beginning if it doesn’t work).
3. Relaunch MAMP and it should be working as normal again.

Annoyingly, I recently encountered the MYSQL issue yet again and the above method didn’t work! What to do?

After browsing around the internet I was fortunate enough to find another solution which did work.

After shutting down MAMP again:

1. Browse to your MAMP directory (Applications/MAMP).
2. Click inside the DB folder.
3. …Then inside the MYSQL folder.
4. Backup the entire MYSQL folder somewhere. I have noticed DB tables can go missing using this method.
5. NEW: In order to make this work and preserve your databases, only delete the two log files in this folder (or move them in case something breaks) they are called ib_logfile0 and ib_logfile1. DO NOT DELETE ibdata1 or your WP installs etc will clear all the database tables!!

This second method pretty much saved my life as I was at a bit of a loss after method 1 didn’t work.

Hope this helps some of you out!