Backing Up Your Database With MAMP

One of the changes in Craft 3 is that, by default, it relies on the mysqldump command to create database backups. That’s the most reliable way to dump a database without hitting PHP resource limits like could happen in Craft 2 with large databases. The problem for MAMP users, however, is that its mysql and mysqldump executables are not available to the PHP process when making requests in the Control Panel via HTTP(S). A few Google searches will surface some hacks that work for some people, and not for others.

Craft provides two configuration settings to help with this: backupCommand and restoreCommand. We’ll provide MAMP-compatible commands for you here. We recommend putting them in your .env file so they don’t need to be shared in other environments such as production, staging, or your teammates’ computers.

Edit /.env #

We’ll add two variables: BACKUP_COMMAND and RESTORE_COMMAND. Copy and paste this code block exactly as it is into your .env file, each command on a single line, and double-quotes as they are.

BACKUP_COMMAND="/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u root -proot --add-drop-table --comments --create-options --dump-date --no-autocommit --routines --set-charset --triggers --single-transaction --no-data --result-file=\"{file}\" {database} && /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u root -proot --add-drop-table --comments --create-options --dump-date --no-autocommit --routines --set-charset --triggers --no-create-info --ignore-table={database}.assetindexdata --ignore-table={database}.assettransformindex --ignore-table={database}.cache --ignore-table={database}.sessions --ignore-table={database}.templatecaches --ignore-table={database}.templatecachecriteria --ignore-table={database}.templatecacheelements --ignore-table={database}.templatecachequeries {database} >> \"{file}\""

RESTORE_COMMAND="/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u root -proot {database} < \"{file}\""

If you changed your MAMP preferences for your MySQL password, then find and replace -proot with -pyourpassword.

Edit /config/general.php #

Craft comes set up with a multi-environment config. Add this to the dev environment settings:

    // Dev environment settings
    'dev' => [
        // existing settings ...
        'backupCommand' => getenv('BACKUP_COMMAND'),
        'restoreCommand' => getenv('RESTORE_COMMAND'),
    ],

What does it do? #

These commands tell PHP to look for MAMP’s own mysql and mysqldump executables by providing the full path to each; e.g., /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump. The complex backup command exports essential data and skips non-essentials like template caches. That keeps the backup file lean and portable.