FYI the problem has been solved. You need to call the mysql command line from the command prompt by first adding the path like:
C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 8.0\bin
Then you should enter the following:
SET GLOBAL local_infile = ‘ON’;
Then restart the command prompt and log in using:
mysql --host=yourhost --user=youruser --password=yourpassword yourdatabase --local-infile=1
We refer to the aforementioned post on stackoverflow.