Local 5 is a Faillure - 3.x Branch Kicks Ass

I’ve been trying all available versions of Local 5 and is a mess. Nothing works, the system without Virtual Box just doesn’t work. Any chance to get back the 3.x Branch and develop over it? Local 5 sucks, sorry…

5.2.7 is out and all the issues are still there:

  • No Apache? Really? You’re kidding, right?
  • Local 5.x doesn’t work in any way with Local Domain or HTTPS.
  • Local 5.x doesn’t write at /etc/hosts file in any way.
  • Open/Save (Mac) dialogs, again, aren’t opening.

The 5.x branch it’s really a step-back in evolution.

I found the 3.x branch here and personally feel this same way. While I don’t use Apache, the plethora of issues present in 5.x is astounding. I love this tool, but ever since WPEngine bought them out, it has been steadily downhill - noticeably downhill and picking up speed.

Update to 3.3.0 which is the last update for 3.x

On the 5.x branch most of sites break despite being written in PHP 7.3 - 7.4
Imports do not work properly (if at all), database corruption issues, Pull from Flywheel no longer works, Asks to upgrade database and then presents an “Install WordPress” page after that fails. Updating plugins is risky business as it can leave your site in permanent maintenance mode. Not sure what happened, but 5.x is not the branch you are looking for. 3.x is where it “just works”.

Yes it’s sad to see this awesome tool, pretty much dying. I would say that VirtualBox is solid, works and has some big development behind. Now, it’s just a “lost branch”…

Apache is on our list of things to add in Q2. It has been a lower priority since WordPress, and most plugins/themes work great with Nginx, but we’ve always had a plan to bring this back into Lightning.

Be sure to vote up Canny if you haven’t already.

This is only if Local is using the localhost routing mode. The Site Domains mode (which is the default) still writes to /etc/hosts, supports domains/hostnames, and HTTPS.

If Local is serving sites at URLs like http://localhost:10001, Local likely detected a conflicting web server on either port 80 or 443. You can always switch the router mode back to Site Domains by going to Preferences » Advanced.

Just note, you’ll need to disable other processes running on ports 80/443, or it will prompt you to go back to the localhost routing mode.

We haven’t seen this on our end, but I’ll take a look into this. Do you see this when Importing and Exporting or in other situations?

Our data tells an entirely different story for both of these sentiments. Usage is up, and the percentage of users who can successfully create a site is also drastically up.

I provided a lot of information behind our decision here: A Plea for Local by Flywheel 3 - #7 by clay - Feature requests - Local Community


Hi @Shane,

Do you see these issues with 5.2.7? We’ve made a lot of improvements recently with Connect to Flywheel and WP Engine in 5.2.6 and 5.2.7.

Have you reached out to our support team regarding the issues with Pulling? We’re more than happy to help out.


With all of this said, I sincerely appreciate the passion you both have for Local. We’re humbled to be part of your workflow and hope to continue to be!

If something isn’t working or if you’re missing a feature, please let us know by creating a post or feature request that’s specific to the bug report or feature.

On that note, I’m going to close this post since it’s not specific to a particular bug or feature request.

If you have any follow-up answers to my questions, please create a new topic or feel free to e-mail me directly at clay@getflywheel.com.

Just please realize, we’re always open to constructive feedback and want Local to be the best tool it possibly can be.

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