Fix MAMP: Apache won’t start but MySQL will
If your MAMP will start MySQL just fine but won’t start Apache there is likely 2 problems you’re facing.
- Port number conflict, or
- Apache related error that for some reason doesn’t show up in the MAMP apache logs.
How to Fix the port conflict in MAMP and Apache on Mac OS X
You need to disable web sharing. Web sharing intercepts communication going to port 80 which is the default port for websites and since MAMP is set to start by default on port 80 there is a conflict because Mac OS X Apache server already has the port reserved.
To enable or disable Web Sharing (Apache):
- From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
- From the View menu, choose Sharing.
- To enable Web Sharing, select the Web Sharing checkbox.
To disable Web Sharing, deselect the Web Sharing checkbox. - Close Sharing preferences.
How to fix the Apache not starting in MAMP problem
First you need to figure out what the problem is, but in my experience 9 times out of 10 it’s an apache config problem.
Open up a terminal and type change directories to wherever you installed MAMP, in my case it’s /Applications/MAMP/
crainbandy$ cd /Applications/MAMP/bin/
Once you’re in this directory you can call the shell script that typically starts the MAMP Apache server through the interface, type what’s below in your /MAMP Intall directory/MAMP/bin
crainbandy$ ./startApache.sh
Syntax error on line 368 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory
Boom. It’s obvious what the problem is now. We need to modify our httpd.conf file to change the DocumentRoot to a folder that actually exists on our computer. This in my experience fixes the problem.
If you’re still having trouble post in the comments and we’ll see what we can do. The Apache error logs in MAMP are useless though because they don’t actually log the apache2 errors, if anyone knows where this log is please let me know, but I can’t find it.
Related reading
17 Responses to “Fix MAMP: Apache won’t start but MySQL will”
Leave a Reply
mmowery@hyperspider.com on April 23rd, 2010
Thanks for the tip on the port conflict.
bryan on April 26th, 2010
No problem!
guavajoel on May 26th, 2010
I am getting this error:
“Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server”
I am not sure what I should do.
jpbanks on May 27th, 2010
It gives me
“bad user name Rodrigo”
maui on June 14th, 2010
hello there!..
I am looking forward to enable external web sharing using MAMP.
I have running on my snow Leo’s macbook an apache2 service installed with MAMP on port 80, and I’ve disabled webSharing on system properties.
Also I configure some virtual servers on apache, tenis.local for example.
The problem is when I try to access to my webservice from another machine on my LAN.
Using http://192.16.1.x/ (my lan ip) I get my default homepage.
But when I try http://tenis.loca/ from outside, I get no answer.
Obviously, I already setup the hosts on the client machine pointing tenis.local to my LAN IP.
Tks on advance, maui
jessnuss on August 1st, 2010
I tried your suggestion and it resulted in the following error:
Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server
What does this mean????
dale on September 16th, 2010
Perfect, exactly the info I needed. Now off to the races!
oluwaseun on September 27th, 2010
Thanks a lot. Solved the problem.
Cool
Seb on October 22nd, 2010
I believe that I’ve got a bad user severin.
I ran your command line on the correct file and got:
httpd: bad user name severin
I got smart and tried changing my username (as well as my password) to something other than ‘root’. I re-installed and hope. Any idea where I could go and jolt apache’s config to use the right username – which I’ve now reverted to root.
ta
vig0 on October 27th, 2010
this was a huge help. Thanks for posting! I had forgot that I had ‘Web Sharing’ checked off in the system preferences.
londonthelost on November 4th, 2010
after typing the second portion
“/startApache.sh
Syntax error on line 368 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
DocumentRoot must be a directory”
I just keep receiving the notice “command not found”.
Am I doing something wrong?
prince on November 27th, 2010
I keep getting this error on MAMP and my apache server does not start.
./startapache.sh
Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server
rk76 on January 15th, 2011
I get the same error:
Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server
What to do?
kombismoke on February 2nd, 2011
For those who are getting this error:
Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server
The problem is you have a user account (home folder) that is more than one word. EXAMPLE: “this user” instead of the correctly formatted “thisuser”.
The solution is to rename your user account so that it contains no spaces as detailed in the following official support document from Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428
hope this helps.
brad on February 18th, 2011
I LOVE YOU
Qark on March 19th, 2011
I found the Syntax error on line 326 of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf:
User takes one argument, Effective user id for this server,
It was my user name. It was ‘Mac Pro 1′ and I changed it to my computers user name… which is my first name. and it worked….
amitsamtani on March 22nd, 2011
Thanks for the tip on checking the Document Root. Worked!