Today I noticed that phpMyAdmin did not work anymore. I got the message “#1 – Can’t create/write to file /var/…/#sql1f7_8_0.MYI (Errcode: 13)”. Of course that file cannot be created or written because the path doesn’t exist. I checked the error log file which can be found in /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/var/mysql. On my machine the file name is “Macintosh-2.local.err”.
In my case the file content was:
090831 13:44:29 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/var/mysql
Warning: World-writable config file '/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/my.cnf' is ignored
090831 13:44:29 [Warning] Setting lower_case_table_names=2 because file system for /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/var/mysql/ is case insensitive
090831 13:44:29 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/sbin/mysqld: Can't create/write to file '/var/folders/6d/6dZ2SlEKFYyfGT+0WE9rBU+++TI/-Tmp-/ibXm32k6' (Errcode: 13)
090831 13:44:29 InnoDB: Error: unable to create temporary file; errno: 13
090831 13:44:29 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' init function returned error.
090831 13:44:29 [ERROR] Plugin 'InnoDB' registration as a STORAGE ENGINE failed.
090831 13:44:29 [Note] Event Scheduler: Loaded 0 events
090831 13:44:29 [Note] /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/sbin/mysqld: ready for connections.
Version: '5.1.37' socket: '/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/var/mysql/mysql.sock' port: 3306 Source distribution
Ok the reason for my problem was that the config file my.cnf 1 was ignored. I asked goole and found out that the file permissions has to be 600. So I corrected them and now it works fine 
- On Windows this might be my.ini ↩
Great !
It saved us, we’re trying to setup XAMPP and we get so much access rights errors !
Nevertheless it should be more explicit !
Hi, where did you change this permission?
Thank you! I’ve been pouring through tons of on-line advice on this same problem. Some had me changing permissions to 777 throughout, others had me add lines to the config file, etc. Your advice is the one that worked! What an obscure fix! How did you ever determine that the permissions for my.cnf had to be 0600?
Thanks again!
This has been a lifesaver… Thanks so much!
Thank you so much
Tina:
open terminal and navigate to the folder with my.cnf
type: sudo chmod 600 my.cnf
hit enter then input your password. Restart mysql and you are good to go