Apache Friends Support Forum

Hi,

Running Windows 8.1
XAMPP Control Panel 3.2.1

Have a few questions

I have MySQL 5.6 installed on my Windows 8.1 machine.

I want to use XAMPP to start developing PHP applications.

After installing and starting XAMPP, I get an error when trying to start MySQL.

I then stop the MySQL service that was already running and then start the MySQL in XAMPP. All is OK, except MySQL in XAMPP is referring to different databases than what I had previously created.

Should I backup and restore to the new MySQL installation and then completely uninstall the previous MySQL applications or can I use the previous MySQL applications in conjunction with the MySQL that was installed with XAMPP?

Jim P

You can use a forreign MySQL Installation with XAMPP. The only problem are the existing databases coming with XAMPP, especially phpmyadmin.
The other databases are just example application and not really needed if you don't want them.

I've fairly new to this. Are there instructions on how to skip MySQL installation for XAMPP and use an existing MySQL installation?

Simply don't start the XAMPP MySQL, instead start your foreign MySQL service.
But that is not a beginner task because of the problems (as said, missing phpmyadmin).
You commonly would need to reinstall phpmyadmin.