Database Error while connecting from Localhost

What may be happening with the DB not showing in phpMyAdmin running under MAMP is that you have a manually installed mysql and a different version installed automatically by MAMP?

That MAMP welcome page also had some MySQL default details listed. Try using those in your CI config file, i.e.

Host: localhost
U: root
P: root

Also import your SQL file using phpMyAdmin, so the DB is installed on the same version/location of MySQL which MAMP uses when looking for it.

So I figured this out, thanks very much for all of your help! You were right, I had installed the database via terminal and it uploaded to a different location. That's why it was not showing up in MAMP > PHPMyAdmin. I had followed a Codeigniter tutorial which imported the DB from the terminal - then ran the internal PHP sever from the terminal php -S localhost:8080. This is what was causing the database error - there was NO DATABASE! MAMP couldn't see the DB that was uploaded to the terminal location.

Also, when I tried to upload the DB into phpmyadmin it was too large, so I had to download it in two separate files from my server. Compressing both files into a zip file before uploading helped also.

It's running locally now on MAMP. Thanks again!

Glad to hear you got it sorted, and thanks for posting your solution in case others have the same problem