Copy Drupal site to local Dev

Local Development Environment: MAMP Pro

1. Download a copy of your drupal public folder to your computer.
2. Export a copy of your database.
3. Create the database on your local machine.  Import your database from the file you just downloaded. For larger databases please reference my blog post about how to increase the memory allowance on MAMP.
4. Copy the drupal root folder into your MAMP htdocs folder. Rename it to “dev.websitename” to keep things organized.
5. Create your MAMP Host entries so your site will load at “http://websitename.local:8888”.
6. Files to update:
   • .htaccess – update all references to the live URL and update them to your local URL.
   • settings.php – update all references to the live URL to your local URL. Set $cookie_domain to “localhost”.
     • update database settings
     • $base_url = “http://websitename.local:8888”
     • $cookie_domain = “localhost”
7. Launch your site and everything should be working as expected.