Install ionCube Loader

ionCube Loader is a PHP extension that allows your server to run PHP files encoded with ionCube — a tool commonly used by commercial software vendors to protect and license their PHP code. This guide explains how to install ionCube Loader in MAMP PRO.

The following example uses PHP 7.4.8. For a different PHP version, use the corresponding ionCube file and target directory.

Download the macOS (64 bits) archive from ioncube.com/loaders.php and unpack it.

From the resulting ioncube directory, copy only ioncube_loader_mac_7.4.so to:

/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php7.4.8/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20190902

Open the PHP 7.4.8 template via File › Open Template › PHP (php.ini) › 7.4.8 and add the following line — it must appear above all other zend_extension directives:
```
zend_extension="/Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php7.4.8/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20190902/ioncube_loader_mac_7.4.so"
```
Restart the servers.
Verify the installation by checking phpinfo(). You should see an ionCube section:

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