xampp phpmyadmin access forbiden

[KimenKroi]

So I have installed the lastest xampp on my mac, it starts normally and everything, and click to go to application and it sends me to 192.168.64.2/dashboard, which appears on the menu "applications", "faqs", "how-to guides" and "phpmyadmin", the thing is when I click on phpmyadmin it says access forbiden, and then I went to the how-to guides to see if I missed anything, and I did, and I have to update the httpd-xammp.conf file from require local to require all granted, and my $1 million questions are:
1. should I do that?
2.and how do I do that?
3. is there anything else that I'm missing? or will miss when I manage to get everything up and running?

[Altrea]

I don't know why it sends you to 192.168.64.2/dashboard, but http://localhost/dashboard and http://localhost/phpmyadmin should work, didn't it?

[tommyami]

Sounds like you installed the VM edition--while you certainly can do the httpd-xampp.conf update as you indicated, an easier (and probably more secure) solution would be to go to the network tab of the stackman_launcher and do some port forwarding from your machine (localhost) to the vm. This will let the Apache server running inside the VM to see your localhost/phpmyadmin traffic as originating from inside the VM, not your mac which is in its mind an external machine.

[KimenKroi]

no, when I go to "localhost" it only shows a basic 'It Works" page, and when I go to these pages you posted, it goes to 404 not found, aparently it only works when i go through the xampp's IP address.
but just so you know what I'm looking into with everything enabled in xampp:
Localhost: https://imgur.com/a/aUOnbli
when I click on either of your links (dashboard or phpmyadmin): https://imgur.com/a/AN4talF
and when I insert http localhost/phpmyadmin: https://imgur.com/a/jvhAnbg

and here when I go through the IP/dashboard: https://imgur.com/a/S8eNPAF
and this is what I get when I click on phpmyadmin on the above image: https://imgur.com/a/N9bLWDj

[KimenKroi]

tommyami, and how do I do that? could you give me a step-by-step for? or you think I should download xampp version that is not the vm?

[Nobbie]

no, when I go to "localhost" it only shows a basic 'It Works" page...

... and that means, you already have installed ANOTHER(!) Apache installation. This "It Works" page is the standard welcome page from Apache, but Xampp does not apply that welcome page, instead Xampp shows up the dashboard.

We cannot help you any further on that, its on you to remember when and why you installed another Apache on your computer.

[KimenKroi]

.. and that means, you already have installed ANOTHER(!) Apache installation. This "It Works" page is the standard welcome page from Apache, but Xampp does not apply that welcome page, instead Xampp shows up the dashboard.

We cannot help you any further on that, its on you to remember when and why you installed another Apache on your computer.

sorry what???

[xmarc999]

I have this problem too. Yes, there is another Apache server running. I do remember when (probably mid 2018) and why (I am trying to learn PHP). Unfortunately, those facts do me zero good in resolving this.
I base my 2018 guess on a previous install of XAMPP, but I believe I uninstalled the old release properly. It seems likely I installed some other server package. I got distracted by learning FileMaker and building a whole system for a non-profit bookstore, and now am finally returning to learning web development. I'll use this issue to track my progress on resolving this. It appears that other relative newbies do run into this issue so hopefully this will be worthwhile to resolve.
Any suggestions on removing a server of unknown origin are welcome. I am already aware of the solution of building a clean macOS and then installing XAMPP, but I may hold off on that for now.
UPDATE: In scanning with Activity Monitor, I saw a process with Docker in its name. Using Find Any File, I found a number of files with Docker in their name. Googled "Remove Docker from mac" and got specific directions as to removing files. Followed those directions, and rebooted.

[xmarc999]

I'm still floundering as removing Docker did not fix the issue. I also reviewed my Applications and deleted a couple items related to servers. No idea if I ever implemented them In any case, still looking.
I looked at my hosts file where I see
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.

And:
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
*** All normal.

UPDATE: (sigh) I don't know why I was convinced that the MacOS built-in server was not running. But "sudo apachectl stop"... well...stopped it. Now to prevent it from starting at system startup and then re-install XAMPP.

[xmarc999]

And another UPDATE: Despite the sudo command apparently stopping the OSX Apache server, I'm still not convinced it was actually running.

I did set up a "clean" Mojave virtual machine under VMWare Fusion. This gave me a good comparison when looking at launch demons and so forth.

But in the end, it was simply grunt work. In looking over Applications and launch demons, I saw a number of potential candidates. With some Google research, I decided to use Find Any File (which looks in places Spotlight won't) to search for any files with the following in their names: (Yes, I deleted XAMPP also just to make sure I was making a fresh start):

XAMPP
bitnami
VirtualHostX
Docker
vagrant

I deleted every file containing these names. A bit more carefully (since I do run VMWare Fusion), I deleted most files/folders that started with VM or Virtual Machine.

Voila! "localhost" now returns "Safari can't connect to the server." Ready for a clean install. (Which worked) Thankfully, the main XAMPP page (index) is clear that it is XAMPP that is running.

[fabiohec]

enabling port forwarding and closing docker works for me. Thanks!

Sounds like you installed the VM edition--while you certainly can do the httpd-xampp.conf update as you indicated, an easier (and probably more secure) solution would be to go to the network tab of the stackman_launcher and do some port forwarding from your machine (localhost) to the vm. This will let the Apache server running inside the VM to see your localhost/phpmyadmin traffic as originating from inside the VM, not your mac which is in its mind an external machine.