Error #2002 Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)

Question

I'm running MAMP.
It has been working fine up until yesterday. I haven't been able to find anything that helps so far. But here is my problem:

As the title states I'm receiving the following error:

error #2002 "Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)"

which, I have noticed, seems to be a pretty common error when I search for it.

Anyway, When I cd to tmp/mysql and ls -laxo the only thing that shows up besides the ./ and ../ directories is .dummy (I have no idea what that is, but I have a hunch it's not the source of my problem).

That is where the mysql.sock file is suppose to be located. Does anyone know of a way to fix this. Maybe I need to create the mysql.sock file but I wouldn't know what to put in it.

Answer 1

Test

If you attempt to start MySQL using the full path it should work

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -u root -p

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Fix

If that works, then you can set it to work normally by running

sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock /tmp/mysql.sock

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Resolution

Now MySQL should work normally

mysql -u root -p

Answer 2

I know this is late, but if ever someone is searching this (as I was tonight, but I found the solution), here's what worked for me:

I opened MAMP and had to click "USE default Apache and MySQL ports". (80 and 3306 instead of 8888 and 8889). That seemed to fix the issue.

Answer 3

Silly solution... But in my case, I didnt start the mysql server. So, look that also!

Answer 4

Mysql server has not started.

mysqld stop
mysql.server start