PHP Warning: mysqli_connect(): (HY000/2002): Connection refused

Question

I am using PHP 5.5 and MAMP (downloaded from here):

I have a basic script like this:

<?php
$servername = "127.0.0.1";
$username = "root";
$password = "root";

// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password);

// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
    die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
echo "Connected successfully";
?>

and when I run this script I get this error:

PHP Warning:  mysqli_connect(): (HY000/2002): Connection refused in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/test/test.php on line 7

Is there some configuration issue that I need to set up within MAMP or PHP?

What if you change server name to 'localhost'? Are your credentials correct? Port? — Luc Hendriks
I tried all combinations of localhost, 127.0.0.1 and password of root and empty string. The credentials and the port should be whatever defaults came with MAMP when I downloaded it earlier today. — johncorser
connection refused = mysql isn't listening on port 3306, or isn't running at all, or isn't set up to allow TCP connections, or there's a firewall actively blocking port 3306. — Marc B
If you made any changes to .ini or other system files, you'll need to restart all services in order for the changes to take effect. — Funk Forty Niner

johncorser johncorser · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-12T15:22:50

In case anyone else comes by this issue, the default port on MAMP for mysql is 8889, but the port that php expects to use for mysql is 3306. So you need to open MAMP, go to preferences, and change the MAMP mysql port to 3306, then restart the mysql server. Now the connection should be successful with host=localhost, user=root, pass=root.

PHP Warning: mysqli_connect(): (HY000/2002): Connection refused

7 Answers