LocalWP and macOS home directory on a different volume

Support
,
1

Hello,

I’m using LocalWP on an Intel Mac with a fresh installation of both macOS and LocalWP.

My macOS home directory has been intentionally moved from the default location:

/Users/myname

to:

/Volumes/Documentos/Users/myname

When creating a new site, LocalWP fails to start MySQL and the site creation process stops. The same LocalWP installation works correctly when using another macOS user account whose home directory remains under /Users.

This seems to indicate that LocalWP may not support home directories located on a different volume.

Is there any supported workaround or configuration that allows LocalWP to work when the user’s home directory is outside the default /Users path?

Thank you.

Using the second user account (standard home directory under /Users) LocalWP creates and starts the site successfully without any errors.

The only significant difference between the two accounts is the location of the home directory.

System Details

  • Local Version: Version 10.1.0+6912

  • Operating System (OS) and OS version: MacOs 15.7.3

Local Logs

local-logs.zip (49.6 KB)

Security Reminder
Local does a pretty good job of scrubbing private info from the logs and the errors it produces, however there’s always the possibility that something private can come through. Because these are public forums, always review the screenshots you are sharing to make sure there isn’t private info like passwords being displayed.

2

Hi @jpenia

Have you tried changing the path in your new site default under Preferences?

Screenshot 2026-06-04 at 7.29.45 AM
Screenshot 2026-06-04 at 7.29.45 AM1958×1280 166 KB

You can also try changing it during site creation as well.

Screenshot 2026-06-04 at 7.30.22 AM
Screenshot 2026-06-04 at 7.30.22 AM1978×1284 134 KB

Have you tried one or both of those and are still having trouble?

3

Hello, thanks for responding.

I just tried it and the result is always the same:

Error: Command failed: /Volumes/Documents/Users/communications/Library/Application Support/Local/lightning-services/mysql-8.4.0/bin/darwin/bin/mysqladmin ping
mysqladmin: connect to server at ‘localhost’ failed
error: ‘Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/Volumes/Documents/Users/communications/Library/Application Support/Local/run/ysRf04FNT/mysql/mysql’ (2)’
Check that mysqld is running and that the socket: ‘/Volumes/Documents/Users/communications/Library/Application Support/Local/run/ysRf04FNT/mysql/mysqld.sock’ exists!

at genericNodeError (node:internal/errors:983:15)
at wrappedFn (node:internal/errors:537:14)
at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:417:12)
at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:519:28)
at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1101:16)
at Socket. (node:internal/child_process:456:11)
at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
at Pipe. (node:net:346:12)

I tested pointing to the new site’s directory in the following scenarios:

  1. Inside the original macOS user folder

  2. Absolute path to the current user directory on the other volume.

  3. External folder on the original hard drive

  4. External folder on the external drive

I performed all four tests in both Local preferences and the advanced options for creating a new site. None yielded a positive or different result.