FastCGI error when accessing a local development site using MAMP Pro I'm running across a problem developing a site locally using OS X 10.10 and MAMP Pro 3.0.5 with PHP 5.5.10. Accessing both the site front-end and the back-end admin interface is  throwing an error 500 Internal Server Error. 

The MAMP Apache log is showing multiple instances of the following error:

[Mon Nov 10 14:03:04 2014] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] FastCGI: comm with server "/Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/php5.5.10.fcgi" aborted: idle timeout (30 sec), referer: http://jtp.dev:8888/admin/entries/project
[Mon Nov 10 14:03:04 2014] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] FastCGI: incomplete headers (0 bytes) received from server "/Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/php5.5.10.fcgi", referer: http://jtp.dev:8888/admin/entries/project


Once this happens, I can't continue working until I restart my machine. Restarting my Mac and restarting MAMP fixes the error temporarily, but it eventually reappears and prevents me from being able to view the site locally.

Has anyone got any ideas about what may be causing this?
Following the answer in this issue https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15563217/apache2-fastcgi-comm-with-dynamic-server-aborted-first-read-idle-timeout/15565267#15565267 I was able to successfully run my script without this dreaded timeout and 500 error, like so:


Go to File &gt; Edit Template &gt; Apache &gt; httpd.conf
Do a Find &amp; Replace for MAMP_FastCgiServer_MAMP
Comment out the line MAMP_FastCgiServer_MAMP
Add a config line for your version of PHP, with the desired timeout limit at the end like so: FastCgiServer /Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/php5.6.2.fcgi -idle-timeout 3600


For your version of PHP the code block would look like this, with the two changes being the second and third last lines:

&lt;IfModule mod_fastcgi.c&gt;
    # URIs that begin with /fcgi-bin/, are found in /var/www/fcgi-bin/
    Alias /fcgi-bin/ "/Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/"

    # Anything in here is handled as a "dynamic" server if not defined as "static" or "external"
    &lt;Directory "/Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/"&gt;
        SetHandler fastcgi-script
        Options +ExecCGI
    &lt;/Directory&gt;

    # Anything with one of these extensions is handled as a "dynamic" server if not defined as
    # "static" or "external". Note: "dynamic" servers require ExecCGI to be on in their directory.
    AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi .fpl

    MAMP_ActionPhpCgi_MAMP

    #MAMP_FastCgiServer_MAMP
    FastCgiServer /Applications/MAMP/fcgi-bin/php5.5.10.fcgi -idle-timeout 3600
&lt;/IfModule&gt;


Also reference this solution:  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24715426/how-do-you-increase-the-apache-fastcgi-timeout-on-mamp-mamp-pro/24976009#24976009