Solved: LocalWP stuck on Downloading WordPress loop

Below is a screenshot of the screen it was stuck on for me but your error may be a looped loading “WordPress version” animation:

I have tried everything!

• Re-installing after deleting previous installation files
• Factory wipe my laptop and installing local again
• Installing an older version < 8.0
• Adding a new site whilst the current one downloads WordPress (used to work in the past on my old laptop – not working anymore)
• Checking host file so it is not read-only
• Changing server type and php versions
• Changing router setting to local host
• Disabled all firewalls

This worked for me and will most likely work for you!

1. Create a new site (this will be stuck on the “Downloading WordPress…” loop) – let’s call this Site X
2. Now close the LocalWP application (if you get an alert to say a site is currently running, ignore this and proceed)
3. Now open the Local WP application
4. Now select Site X and click Start Site
5. Click Database in the sub-navigation
6. Click Open Adminer and you should see a breadcrumb navigation structure on the top of the screen that looks something like this: MySQL >> Local Site: Site X >> Database: local
7. Most likely there will be no tables within this – but if there are tables then select all of the tables and click Drop
8. Click Local Site: Site X in the top breadcrumb navigation structure
9. Now click Privileges – most likely there will be no users but if there might be 1 user called Root
10. Click Create user, leave the server name as localhost, set a new username, set a new password – make this very very very hard, click All privileges and then click Save – you can now exit AdminerEvo. If you get any errors, see step 11 or skip to step 12.
11. In MySQL/MariaDB, when granting privileges, you need to specify the database or table on which you are granting privileges. Using .* is not valid syntax for granting privileges (which sometimes happens when you click All privileges by default). Simply edit the SQL query and replace .* with 'local'.* and then click Save – you can now exit AdminerEvo.
12. Go back to LocalWP, right click on your site, and select Go to site folder
13. Go to your app\public filepath – most likely it is empty, if not, delete all of the files
14. Open your broswer of choice, search for the download WordPress website, and download WordPress – the UK version of the WordPress download is here
15. Now unzip the content of this folder inside of the app\public filepath you went to in step 13 – there might be another folder called WordPress when you unzip the WordPress folder, you want the contents of the WordPress folder directly inside of the app\public filepath – you can now close the explorer
16. Back to LocalWP, now click Open site for Site X and you should see the WordPress installation wizard – simply follow the steps – make sure you enter the following details correctly:
    • Database name: local
    • Username: the username you set in AdminerEvo
    • Password: the password you set you set in AdminerEvo
17. Bonus step: create a “Blueprint” of this installation in LocalWP so you can always start a new install by cloning the blueprint

If you completed the above steps correctly, you should be directed to the wp-admin page – congratulations! Not only can you start using LocalWP for this particular site installation but you should now be able to create a new site in LocalWP normally and you shouldn’t get anymore errors!