Overview: Whilst we offer paid service and troubleshooting for WordPress, we're happy to provide these free suggestions for self-help at no charge. The following suggestions are undertaken at your own risk.
Information you will require
Item | Description |
---|---|
FTP server | The IP address of the FTP file server |
FTP username | |
FTP password | |
MySQL database server | The IP address of the DB server |
MySQL database name | |
MySQL database username | User with dbo permission |
MySQL database password |
Recommended tools
The free and opensource FTP client FileZilla https://filezilla-project.org
The free MySQL database client Workbench https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/workbench
How to connect to a database: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/workbench/en/wb-mysql-connections.html (See https://developer.wordpress.org/apis/wp-config-php/ for how to extract the database server/user/pass from wp-config.php file).
Common causes and solutions
CACHE
The "cache" could contain a deleted item or mis-configured older copy of an object
Using FTP, navigate to the "WP-Content" folder
Delete all contents (files/sub-folders) from the "cache" sub-folder
Re-test site.
SERVER SETTINGS
The ".htaccess" file could contain invalid server settings
Using FTP, navigate to the file ".htaccess" and rename ".htaccess-DISABLED"
Re-test site.
PLUGIN
A "plugin" could be incompatible or misconfigured
Using FTP, navigate to the "WP-Content" folder
Create a new folder "plugins-DISABLED"
Move ALL of the sub-folders within the original "plugins" folder to "plugins-DISABLED"
Test access to site, and if now working move 1 plugin (sub-folder) back into the "plugins" folder and re-test, until you locate the plugin that is causing the issue.
THEME
A "theme" could be incompatible or misconfigured
Using FTP, navigate to the "WP-Content" folder
Create a new folder "themes-DISABLED"
Move ALL of the sub-folders within the original "themes" folder to "themes-DISABLED"
Test access to site, and if now working move 1 theme (sub-folder) back into the "themes" folder and re-test, until you locate the theme that is causing the issue.
OTHER
Other issues could be the cause - enable DEBUGGING to show the error messages
Using FTP, navigate to the file "wp-config.php" and copy to your local computer
Edit the local file in Notepad (or similar text editor), searching for "WP_DEBUG" such as:
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );
Change "false" to "true", save the file and upload back to the server using FTP.
Re-test the site and look carefully onscreen for any specific error messages.
IMPORTANT: Once resolved, be sure to disable debugging (set "true" to "false").
VERSION
WordPress version may no longer be supported by the server
If you still cannot log into WordPress admin even after exhausting the above techniques, you can try a manual upgrade. Manually upgrade to latest version of WordPress by overwriting with latest file versions, as follows:
Download and extract latest version from https://wordpress.org/download/
Using FTP, navigate to the root folder, such as "htdocs"
Rename folders "wp-admin" and "wp-includes" by appending "_OLD" to the folder names
Rename file "wp-config.php" by appending "_OLD"
Upload (and overwrite) latest WordPress files and folders (inside the "wordpress" folder) to the FTP website root (such as "htdocs") EXCEPT the following:
Folder "wp-content"
Rename file "wp-config.php" by appending "_NEW"
Rename original file "wp-config.php_OLD" by removing appendage "_OLD"
(The wp-config.php file contains the database settings, without it the site would install fresh WordPress installation and all content would be inaccessible)
Re-test site.
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