Export / Import Large Database from MAMP using Terminal

You can see the original version of these instructions from Nick Hardeman at this link.

MAMP is a great tool for running servers locally, however, when you must export that site you have been developing locally and your database is huge, then you could have some problems with PHPMyAdmin.
One solution is to use terminal. The reason that I am copying Nick Hardeman’s post is so that I can reference it in the future. It always takes me more that 10 minutes to figure this out since I never use terminal.

I understand there are probably many ways to do this, but this works for me, so… try out the code below.

EXPORT DATABASE FROM MAMP

Step One:

• Open a new terminal window

Step Two:

• Navigate to the MAMP install by entering the following line in terminal
• cd /applications/MAMP/library/bin
• Hit the enter key

Step Three:

• Write the dump command
• ./mysqldump -u [USERNAME] -p [DATA_BASENAME] > [PATH_TO_FILE]
• Hit the enter key
• Example:
• ./mysqldump -u root -p wp_database > /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/symposium10_wp/wp_db_onezero.sql
• Quick tip: to navigate to a folder quickly you can drag the folder into the terminal window and it will write the location of the folder. It was a great day when someone showed me this.

Step Four:

• This line of text should appear after you hit enter
• Enter password:
• So guess what, type your password, keep in mind that the letters will not appear, but they are there
• Hit the enter key

Step Five:

• Check the location of where you stored your file, if it is there, SUCCESS
• Now you can import the database, which will be outlined next.

IMPORT DATABASE INTO MAMP

Step One:

• Open a new terminal window
• CAREFULL:  This will replace all tables in the database you specify!

Step Two:

• /applications/MAMP/library/bin/mysql -u [USERNAME] -p [DATABASE_NAME] < [PATH_TO_SQL_FILE]
• Hit the Enter Key
• Example:
• /applications/MAMP/library/bin/mysql -u root -p wordpress_db < /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/backupDB.sql
• Quick Tip: Don’t forget that you can simply drag the file into the terminal window and it will enter the location of the file for you.

Step Three:

• You should be prompted with the following line:
• Enter password:
• Type your password, keep in mind that the letters will not appear, but they are there
• Hit the enter key

Step Four:

• Check if you database was successfully imported
• Navigate to phpMyAdmin in a browser
• http://localhost:8888/MAMP/