Title: Localhost vs. Website URL
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Localhost vs. Website URL

 *  [bob211](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bob211/)
 * (@bob211)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localhost-vs-website-url/)
 * On Mac OSX, I successfully installed wordpress in /~username/Sites/wordpress
 * The problem is that when I go to [http://localhost/wordpress/](http://localhost/wordpress/)
   the wordpress page looks different than the page at [http://username-imac.home/~username/wordpress/](http://username-imac.home/~username/wordpress/)
 * Furthermore, if I go to URL [http://username-imac.home/~username/wordpress/wp-admin](http://username-imac.home/~username/wordpress/wp-admin),
   it redirects to [http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login](http://localhost/wordpress/wp-login)
 * Through the wordpress admin dashboard, I edited the header.php file, and the 
   changes appear at [http://localhost/wordpress/](http://localhost/wordpress/)

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localhost-vs-website-url/#post-2468155)
 * And what urls are entered in Settings -> General?
 *  Thread Starter [bob211](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bob211/)
 * (@bob211)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localhost-vs-website-url/#post-2468161)
 * Settings – General has both WordPress URL and Site URL as “[http://localhost/wordpress&#8221](http://localhost/wordpress&#8221);
 * What I would like to know is where does WordPress get the theme files from that
   are showing up at the page with URL ../username-imac.home/~username/wordpress/?
 * As far I can tell, there is only one wordpress installation on this machine, 
   so why would the theme be different at localhost/wordpress than at /~username/
   wordpress ?
 * Also, when I edit files from the Admin Site Editor, is wordpress writing to physical
   files, or storing in the database? If I log out of the Admin Site, and log back
   in , the changes are in the Editor, but not in the files on the machine.
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localhost-vs-website-url/#post-2468210)
 * You cannot use `localhost` for your site urls and then expect the site to look
   the same using a completely different url.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Localhost vs. Website URL’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Localhost Installs](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/localhost-installs/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/localhost-vs-website-url/#post-2468210)
 * Status: not resolved

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