2006 – MySQL Server has gone away error during database imp_MySQL

I was trying to import a relatively large database into MySQL via phpMyAdmin, and I was hit with the error message 2006 – MySQL server has gone away :

Why has the server gone away? lol. Thinking it was bound to be something like a size limit ( not the first time this has happened to me ), I ran some simple SQL to print out the MySQL configuration variables:

SHOW VARIABLES;

In the resulting list, look for max_allowed_packet :

If you convert 1048576 bytes into something perhaps more meaningful, such as MB, you’ll find it’s a low 1MB. Well, that’s certainly not a big enough limit for the database SQL I’d tried to import.

Edit the MySQL my.cnf file

So to increase this limit, I located the my.cnf file, which MAMP uses as part of the MySQL configuration setup:

sudo nano /etc/my.cnf

And added a new value to the end of the file:

max_allowed_packet = 64M

Thanks to this article for helping me understanding how to update the MySQL settings for MAMP , and this answer on stackoverflow for helping me understand why I was received the 2006 sql error.