Can't start phpMyAdmin. Keep getting the #2002 socket error

Question

I've been trying to set mysql and phpMyAdmin for the last 12 hours, without any success. And yes, after hours and hours of Google-ing I know that is a common problem and I've read similar queries on stackoverflow but still can't come with the solution.....

I've tried everything - from changing the

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port']

in the config.inc.php file to 3306, 127.0.0.1....

typing the socket path in the config.inc.php file - both tmp/mysql.php and the /var/mysql/mysql.sock.

I've tried changing the socket path in the my.cnf file and the php.ini....but I keep getting the same error:

#2002 - No such file or directory
The server is not responding (or the local server's socket is not correctly configured).

I'm using MySQL (5.1.65), PhpMyAdmin (3.5.2.2) and PHP (5.3.8).

Answer 1

I have recently encountered this problem on Mac OS Sierra too. Apache server is working but mysql is not. After searching for a solution, reading lots of posts I found this solution. And it worked!

The solution is to navigate to the mysql folder, in my case its,

/Applications/MAMP/db/mysql56/

and remove all the files except folders. Then restart MAMP again.

Answer 2

1. Quit MAMP
2. Open the terminal
3. Type: killall -9 mysqld Restart MAMP