XAMPP - Apache could not start - Attempting to start Apache service

Question

While trying to start Apache using XAMPP  I was receiving  -  Attempting to start Apache service     message in XAMPP UI  No further details were available   Where can I see the logs  I was running XAMPP as Admin

User · Answer

My scenario was different after I tested all the possible options. If you have changed the ports and still get the same problem, well here's something you can try out. This was done in Windows 7.

Step 1: Confirm the cause of the error by going to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> Application -> Error. Mine said "The Apache service named reported the following error:

httpd.exe: Syntax error on line 424 of C:/xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf: Cannot load c:\xampp\php\php5apache.dll into server: The specified module could not be found." So I needed to change \php5apache.dll to the version of my php and apache version installed which was php7apache2_4.dll

Step 2: To get the correct name for your .dll php and apache file, got to C:\xampp\php. You will see something like php7apache2_4.dll with other files in the folder.

Step 3: Go to C:/xampp/apache/conf/httpd.conf and edit the configuration file and change "c:\xampp\php\php5apache.dll" to "c:\xampp\php\php7apache2_4.dll" in my case. Make sure you open the file as administrator save changes made.

Step 4: Run the xampp server and everything should work fine. Do not forget to shut down the xampp server before doing the changes to the apache configuration file.

Hope this helps. Cheers! :)

User · Answer

Make sure Apache didn t get Disabled in Services  Control panel  Admin Tools  Services    If it s Disabled then Set it to Manual and it should run   That was my case  I found Apache Disabled

User · Answer

Try to install x86 version of XAMPP  The default XAMPP version on their website is x64  maybe because I m using x64 Windows 7   download link here

User · Answer

Solution for my particular scenario  It had been working a couple days before getting borked    Port 80 was not the problem  but something I had done while messing around with Services and Startup    Type msconfig on Windows  Start menu Click System Configuration   Screenshot for System Configuration   In the Services tab  search for Apache24  Click  Hide all Microsoft services  in the checkbox at the bottom of the window to make it easier to find  If its checkbox isn t checked  check it   If it was already checked  then this guide isn t going to help  However if it is    Click OK  your PC will have to restart Try once again  In my case Apache was already running once I opened Xampp

User · Answer

I had this issue when I installed under Program Files  which they do not recommend due to write issues  This might only be a problem if you are not logged in as an admin and use a password to install  I just uninstalled and installed in a directory that did not need admin privileges

User · Answer

I realized it was a port issue since I was running IIS and other web servers in my machine  But I was more interested to see a detailed error message with the port number in the UI   Seems like it was not logged in the UI or log file  at least in my case   but in the Event viewer  Control panel -  View Event Logs   Under the Even viewer -  Windows Logs -  Application   I could see a permission error something like the below one      An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions     AH00072  make sock  could not bind to address 0 0 0 0 443        To fix this permission issue for SSL port  Please change the below line in httpd-ssl conf  C  xampp apache conf extra      When we also provide SSL we have to listen to the   standard HTTP port  see above  and to the HTTPS port       Listen xxx   Replace XXX with any valid port number that is open in your machine   If you are having issues with Port 80  then change the httpd conf file  C  xampp apache conf     Change this to Listen on specific IP addresses as shown below to    prevent Apache from glomming onto all bound IP addresses     Listen 12 34 56 78 80  Listen 127 0 0 1 8000   I have also summarized other solutions that I came across    Most often Skype blocks the Apache port  So terminate it and try again  Find the process id  PID  that is using the Blocked port   netstat -ano  and kill the corresponding process in Windows Task Manager

User · Answer

Also check if your xampp is installed in the main directory like C or D or E and not in or within a folder of that directory  i e     quot D  Xampp quot  or is it  quot D  something Xampp quot   if its not in the main path of the directory  it will show this error  copy your xampp directory from  quot D  Something Xampp quot   to   quot D  quot  So it becomes like this  quot D  Xampp quot  and the issue will be resolved

User · Answer

For those who have accidentally  or not  changed one of the  conf files and apache does not run even after trying all the above solutions   One easy way to track where the issue is located  is to run Apache via command prompt     On windows    open command prompt as admin then navigate inside the bin folder of Apache   next run   httpd in order to run apache     C  xampp apache bin httpd   For my case it was      someone had added a virtual host in the specific file that caused the problem   I commented the lines and Apache ran fine

User · Answer

Had the same issue while updating to PHP7 2  Problem  First I closed skype and then checked whether port 80 is not an issue  How you can check that  See  AlexT comment above   In my case  port 80 wasn t an issue  So now I had to figure out what was wrong  So I checked Error Logs Control Panel   Even viewer   Windows Logs   Application and found following error against Apache2 4     httpd exe  Syntax error on line 520 of C  xampp apache conf httpd conf  Syntax error on line 18 of C  xampp apache conf extra httpd-xampp conf  Cannot load C  xampp php php7ts dll into server  The Apache service named is not a valid Win32 application    Which means I had installed wrong PHP version  Actually I downloaded win64 version while the required version was Win32 for me   So I downloaded correct version from  Download PHP 7 2 0 extracted it in C  xampp php folder  restarted the apache and it worked

User · Answer

Check your DocumentRoot path  in httpd conf   a typo there can cause this problem

User · Answer

start xampp  as administrator     1  right click C  xampp xampp-control exe  and run as administrator   2  unistall service module and then install service module   3  now try start the apache and mysql

User · Answer

I had a hard-coded IP in httpd conf and my local IP had changed which was causing my issue  changed IP over and all worked again

User · Answer

I had the same issue  executing  setup xampp bat  in xampp folder solved my issue

User · Answer

Starting Xampp as a console application  simply by doubleclicking xampp start exe in the Xampp root folder  was the only thing that worked for me on Windows 10  no Skype  no Word Wide Web Publishing Service   WampServer and UwAmp also didn t work

User · Answer

In my case  with the same problem and Xampp window  I had copied  apache conf extra httpd-vhosts conf entries from an old Xampp version to a newly installed one so I could continue to open local projects in browsers  One of the vhosts paths was wrong  After deleting that entry Apache started without problem   The reference by  Karthik to  in the Event viewer  Control panel -  View Event Logs  saved me time  It s all too easy to presume Xampp logs will point to the problem  It doesn t

User · Answer

For me it wasn t a port or service issue  I had to re-run the XAMPP setup script  Although this didn t directly fix the issue for me  the script was much more verbose than the XAMPP log  pointing me in the right direction to actually solve the problem  From the XAMPP GUI  click on Shell  type set  press Tab to autocomplete to the setup xampp bat file  and then press Enter to run it  In my case I got the following output   ERROR   Test php exe failed      ERROR   Perhaps the Microsoft C   2008 runtime package is not installed   ERROR   Please try to install the MS VC   2008 Redistributable Package from the Mircrosoft page first  ERROR   http   www microsoft com en-us download details aspx id 5582  This particular error is misleading  Although it specifies the Visual C   2008 Redistributable Package  PHP 7 4 x requires the Visual C   2019 Redistributable Package  After installing that and following the prompt to restart  sure enough I m now able to start Apache as normal

User · Answer

IF PORT 80 IS NOT THE ISSUE   Check to see if the port 80 is in use first as this can be an issue  You can do this by typing  netstat -an  into cmd  The look for 0 0 0 0 80 under Local Address  if you find this is in use then follow the solution from  Karthik  However  I had a similar issue but my port 80 was not in use  My XAMPP had wrong paths locations  steps to fix this   1 Find out the Apache version you are using  you can find this by looking in Services  Control panel  Admin Tools  Services  and finding Apache in my case it was listed as Apache2 4  2 Close XAMPP   3 Run cmd as admin   4 execute  sc delete  Apache2 4    put your version in place of mine and without the surrounding      but with the     around Apache    5 execute  sc delete  mySQL    again remove the    when you type it   6 reopen XAMPP and try starting Apache  If you are having trouble with FileZill  Mercury  or Tomcat you could try it here too  but I have not tested that myself   Hope this helps

User · Answer

when i run xampp control panel normal     I had been run   I can   t start apache So  I will run it with administrator     I can run apache

User · Answer

I had the same problem but was because I had already previously installed xampp   and I tried to install a newer version   then I installed the newer version in another file directory  I named the file directory xampp2   I solved the problem after uninstall the newer version  rename the old one  I renamed as xamppold   and installing xampp again  I guess if you didn t installed xampp in another file directory or something like that   it should be enough to reinstall xampp  If you are worried about your files   you always can make a backup before reinstalling xampp  I solved the problem after watching the xampp activity log  the list of the bottom  and realizing xampp was trying to open the custom file path but I had another route path  If the first option didn t worked  at least you can scroll up in the activity log and see whats the error you get while starting as admin and trying to re install the Apache module or trying to start the module  You may wander why I didn t just simply uninstall the whole thing from the beginning   and the answer would be I have tweak a couple of things of xampp for some different projects  from changing the ports   to add  dll to run mongo db in Apache   and I m just too lazy to re-do everything again  b I hope my answer can be helpful for anyone since is my first time writing in stackoverflow    Cheers

User · Answer

I had the same issue Just click on services button Then find apache and right cick   properties   set startup type as Automatic  Manual  Now close apache and try again It will work

[xampp] XAMPP - Apache could not start - Attempting to start Apache service

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