Multisite fails to start

[LittleBigThing]

Quick summary

I have created a multisite using Studio. It has worked fine. Since 1.7 and now on 1.7.2 it fails to start, while other, single sites are starting correctly. Re-creating and -importing the whole site does not solve the problem.

I receive this error:

[2026-01-30T09:47:46.722Z][info][main] [CLI - site ID 05d2f0f5-f65b-4e8e-bf81-23153fde3b88] {"name":"MySite 2026","path":"\/wordpress\/wp-content\/themes\/mytheme","slug":"mytheme","isBlockTheme":true,"supportsWidgets":false,"supportsMenus":false}
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.733Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Starting process daemon…
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.749Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Loading site…
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.776Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Generating SSL certificates…
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.777Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Adding domain to hosts file…
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.783Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Setting up SQLite integration, if needed…
[2026-01-30T09:47:47.941Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Starting WordPress server…
[2026-01-30T09:47:50.296Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Starting up workers…
[2026-01-30T09:47:51.687Z][info][main] [CLI - 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa] Booting WordPress…
[2026-01-30T09:48:02.208Z][erro][main] Error occurred in handler for 'startServer': CliCommandError: [Last error message] Failed to start WordPress server: Error connecting to the SQLite database.
  [Base message] Failed to start site
  [Exit code] 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Applications/Studio.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/main/index.js:15274:21)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1101:16)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (node:internal/child_process:456:11)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:519:28)
    at Pipe.<anonymous> (node:net:346:12)
[2026-01-30T09:48:02.544Z][info][main] Stopping server with ID 5164c622-4af1-4911-b8c4-779f9636a1fa
[2026-01-30T09:48:05.897Z][info][main] Server is not running

Steps to reproduce

1. Start Studio
2. Start site
3. Error...

What you expected to happen

View the multisite as before.

What actually happened

Site does not start.

Impact

One

Available workarounds?

No but the app is still usable

Platform

Mac Intel

Logs or notes

I am using a Mac with OS Sonoma 14.8.3.

[bcotrim]

Thanks for reporting the issue @LittleBigThing

We are currently working on multisite support on Studio, and it should be available soon.
#2470

Meanwhile I would like to suggest a workaround:

1. Ensure the site in Studio has a custom domain
2. Setting $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = 'YOUR_CUSTOM_DOMAIN_NAME' in wp-config.php

Please let's us know if it worked!

[LittleBigThing]

Hi,

Thanks, @bcotrim. Yes, it did work!

For the record, I’ve put this in wp-config.php after the multisite settings:

$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] = 'mysite.local';

[bcotrim]

Closing since we are addressing the issue as part of #2470