Could not connect to Redis at 127.0.0.1:6379: Connection refused

Nothing is listening on 6379. The fix is finding out which Redis you meant and starting it, or pointing your client at the one that is running.

Connection refused is the kernel's answer, not Redis's: no process has that port open on that address. So Redis is stopped, listening somewhere else, or was never started on this Mac at all. Paths below are for Apple Silicon; use /usr/local in place of /opt/homebrew on an Intel Mac.

Is anything there?

redis-cli ping
lsof -nP -iTCP:6379 -sTCP:LISTEN

PONG means Redis is up and the error is in your app's config, not the server. If lsof prints nothing, keep going. If it prints a process on a different address (::1 only, or 192.168.x.x), the server is up but not on 127.0.0.1; see the bind section below.

Homebrew Redis: start it

brew services list
brew services start redis

brew services start loads a launchd job that also starts Redis at login. For a one-off without launchd:

redis-server /opt/homebrew/etc/redis.conf

If it starts and immediately dies, or brew services shows error, read the log:

tail -n 50 /opt/homebrew/var/log/redis.log

The usual culprits are a port already in use (a second Redis, often a Docker one), a bad dir in the config that Redis cannot write to for its dump file, or a leftover /opt/homebrew/var/run/redis.pid.

Check bind and port

grep -E '^(bind|port|protected-mode|unixsocket)' /opt/homebrew/etc/redis.conf

Homebrew's default config binds 127.0.0.1 and ::1 on port 6379. If someone changed port, or set bind to only an IPv6 or LAN address, a client aiming at 127.0.0.1:6379 is refused. The running server reports what it is actually using:

redis-cli -p 6379 CONFIG GET bind

Docker Redis: publish the port

docker ps --filter publish=6379
docker ps -a --filter ancestor=redis

A container is only reachable at 127.0.0.1:6379 if it publishes the port: -p 6379:6379 on docker run, or ports: ["6379:6379"] in the Compose file. Without that, the container is up, Redis inside it answers, and your Mac still refuses the connection. Inside Compose, other containers reach it by service name (redis:6379), so the same app works in a container and fails on the host; that is the difference.

If the container exited, docker compose up -d redis or docker start <name> brings it back.

localhost versus 127.0.0.1

Some clients resolve localhost to ::1 first. A Redis bound only to 127.0.0.1 refuses that, and the error names ::1 instead. Use 127.0.0.1 explicitly in the connection string, or bind both, which the Homebrew default already does.

Errors that are not this one

• NOAUTH Authentication required: Redis is up and reachable; it wants a password (requirepass in the config, or REDIS_PASSWORD on the container). Add -a to redis-cli or the password to the URL.
• DENIED Redis is running in protected mode: you reached it from a non-loopback address without a password. Connect via 127.0.0.1 or set a password.
• Connection timed out: a firewall or a wrong host, not a stopped server. Refused is instant; timeouts wait.

Not installed at all

which redis-server || brew install redis

A fresh Mac, or one where a project's README assumed Redis was already there. After brew install, start it with brew services start redis and run redis-cli ping once more.

The easier way

ServeMon lists every Redis on the Mac, Homebrew or container, with a dot that means it answered PING, not just that a port is open. A stopped Homebrew Redis appears in the list with a Start button; a container without a published port shows no host port, which is the whole diagnosis.

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