Hello @Phemy - welcome to the Local community.
Have you tried the work around suggested in this thread?
If that doesn’t work, can you please provide more information about your set up?
- Operating system
- Local version
Thank you,
Sam
@Phemy Hi, my name is Austin Wendt - I believe we’ve been tweeting 
https://twitter.com/Oluwaphemy14/status/1635716943129739296
Here is what I mean by permissions - I’m assuming you are using Site Domain mode in Local (under your Local settings, under Advanced) and Local is unable to start the site. Here is a screenshot from my machine -
As you can see, my site is stuck on “Starting up site services” and it will stay that way until I enter my username and password in the prompt on the screen. Sometimes this opens on another monitor or behind Local and developers miss it. Is it hidden on your screen somewhere?
At all, that pop-up isn’t showing on my screen, that pop-up on your screen requesting for password is absent on my screen
Like Sam mentioned, can you share your operating system and Local version?
And if you can share your logs that would be great! Retrieving Local’s Log File - Local
Are you using localhost or Site Domain domain mode? You can see this in your Preferences > Advanced in Local.
Windows 10
local 6.6.1
Site domain
error.log (123 Bytes)
local-details.json (840 Bytes)
local-lightning.log (28.1 KB)
Also, Do I have to be connected to the internet before it can work? Because I’m not connected to the internet, I’m offline
No, you shouldn’t need to be online unless you’re building the site with a version of PHP, database, or web server that Local needs to download.
Looking at your error logs, I believe I found the issue:
{“thread”:“main”,“level”:“error”,“stack”:“Error: Unable to read hosts file at C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts\n at HostsFileService.shouldUpdateHosts (%%appPath%%\main\dns\hostsFileService.js:1:1721)\n at HostsFileService. (%%appPath%%\main\dns\hostsFileService.js:1:1250)\n at HostsFileService.flush (%%appPath%%\node_modules\debounce-promise\dist\index.js:54:74)\n at listOnTimeout (node:internal/timers:559:17)\n at process.processTimers (node:internal/timers:502:7)”,“message”:“Unable to read hosts file at C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts”,“timestamp”:“2023-03-15T08:47:27.568Z”}
Local isn’t able to read (or update, I assume), the etc\hosts file located at the file path above. This is usually due to antivirus or even Windows Defender preventing Local from making changes on the machine.
Check out this post for some steps to resolve the issue - Help! I'm running into an EPERM error with the hosts file on Windows
Another option is to switch off of Site Domain mode and use Localhost routing mode instead. This will also resolve the problem.
This post explains using localhost mode as well - Local can't create site under Windows due to hosts file - #5 by ben.turner
Also thinking about copying WordPress installation files ( I have WordPress 6.6.1 installation files) to the root directory of the site I’m trying to create on Local by flywheel… Would that work??
I already created an exclusion on Windows security for the folder in which Local by flywheel is installed but I still don’t understand why it’s not working
No, that won’t have any effect; Local uses the WordPress installation files that it ships with or downloads based on the site.
The second error is very similar to the first - something is not allowing Local to talk to your computer in the way that it needs to. I would check the permissions on your hosts file and rule out any other potential program that could be conflicting with Local. It is hard to say what that might be.
Alright, thanks Austin… would appreciate that
error.log (372 Bytes)
you might find these files useful
local-details.json (840 Bytes)
local-lightning.log (60.9 KB)
error.log (372 Bytes)
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