Uninstalling all instances of apache, php and mysql So When I first got my mac mini, I installed things like apache, mysql and php - not knowing that apple either came with these or had a tool called mamp that would allow you to run these. 

I thought this was like ubuntu and I could install and run everything my self. I soon got frustrated and installed mamp on top of what ever I was doing, which wasn't working, and got that to work - Unfortunately a side affect of that was, every time I updated a file or folder on the mamp server, I had to stop, start mamp just for the changes to take affect.

This isn't normal.

So my solution is to uninstall apache, php, mysql AND mamp and then just install mamp and get it working as it should.

How would I do this?
Just delete or move the apps from the app folder s long as they don't have their own un-installer. If that doesn't work, back up your mac, reinstall the OSX, and copy the data you want from your back up file.