I just migrated a drupal 6 site from the (‘normal-live’) host to a MAMP (Mac (L)AMP stack). I needed to do this so a client can have ‘offline’ access to the site in remote areas.
I used the backup/migrate module on the live site to get an export of the db. On the MAMP setup I did a fresh install of Drupal. Then I copied the modules, files, themes, etc. to the new install. After that, using phpMyAdmin, I imported the exported (from live site) SQL file to the new install on the MAMP. At this point everything appears fine at…first glance, I can nav to the different pages as an anonymous user, etc.
My problem is that if I try to login it takes me to the old URL (instead of going to http://localhost:8888/drupal-6.20/??? it goes to the ‘https://originalDomain.com/???’). If I change the $base_url in the settings.php it wants to reinstall the site (drupal installer runs), I am also using the .htaccess file that got installed w/ the fresh drupal (not the one from the live site).
I am baffled…
Since you’re getting redirected from an URL starting with http to a URL starting with https, check to see if you have the Secure Pages module installed and set to redirect users.