Install using Composer

This section discusses how to install sample data if you got the Magento software in any of the following ways:

• Downloaded a compressed archive from Magento.

If you downloaded an archive from GitHub, this method won’t work because the composer.json file doesn’t contain the repo.magento.com URL.

• Used composer create-project

You can use this method of getting sample data for both Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce, but you must use the same authentication keys you used to install Magento.

If you encounter errors, such as Could not find package... or ...no matching package found..., make sure there aren’t any typos in your command. If you still encounter errors, you may not have access to the right Composer repositories, especially if your using Magento Commerce. Contact Magento support for help.

You can use Composer to install sample data either before or after installing Magento; however, there might be additional tasks.

If you’re a contributing developer, refer to Install by cloning repositories.

Do not install sample data if your Magento application is set for production mode. Switch to developer mode first. Installing sample data in production mode fails.

To install sample data using the command line, enter the following command as the Magento file system owner in the <magento_root> folder:

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bin/magento sampledata:deploy

If you’re installing sample data after installing Magento, you must also run the following command to update the database and schema in the <magento_root> folder:

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bin/magento setup:upgrade

You are required to authenticate to complete the action.

Authentication error

The following authentication error might display:

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[Composer\Downloader\TransportException]
The 'https://repo.magento.com/packages.json' URL required authentication.
You must be using the interactive console to authenticate

If the error displays, change to your Magento installation directory and run composer update, which will prompt you for your authentication keys.

Install the Magento software

After sample data installation is complete, install the Magento software using the command line.