You’re trying to log into your WordPress site to make a few changes or add some content, but all of a sudden you can no longer log in. you find yourself trying to remember if you changed your password or figure out if you have been hacked, when really it might just be a simple error. Never fear, the team at WPEZI are here to help, as always. We have almost seen every single login error and they are mostly easy to fix, so we have put together this cheat sheet of sorts, of the different errors that can occur and what you can do to fix them.
We recently had to fix this for a client who is a roofing contractor in Adelaide, so here is our top tips:
Quick Fixes
Possibly the most common reason for not being able to log in is a change in password. This one is easily fixed by selecting the Lost my Password link and resetting.
We have all heard the old turn it off and back on again to resolve the issue. Truth is, this works in 90% of applications, because it gives the device or system a chance to reboot; like we do every night. So try closing your internet browser completely. This can be particularly important for browsers like Chrome where updates are triggered when the platform shuts down; just remember it only works if every instance of the browser is closed.
Next clear your cookies and your cache in the browser. This can generally be found in the settings area and clearing your browser data should do the trick. Once you have cleared the cookies and cache, restart your browser and try again.
You can try accessing the login from a different angle. Add the “/wp-login.php” tail to your domain name, and you should be able to log in from there.
Also remember that things like installing an SSL certificate, or installing a security plugin can impact the login screen. Even changing the URL of your site will make a difference if you use a bookmark in your browser to get to your site.
Insufficient memory is more common than most would think. Usually occurring after an install on your site that was too large for your servers or host to handle. Simply remove the files you just added and take a look at the memory limit of your server or host package and increase as necessary.
We would have to say the second most common login problem is an ‘error establishing a connection’. There are a number of different causes for this one, but commonly it’s a drop out of the internet connection, whether it be at your location or your web server location. If your internet is working and stable, contact your web host as they may be experiencing issues. Generally, most hosts will notify users of any outages or downtimes and expected resolution time frames, so you will at least have an idea of when to try again.
More Detailed Issues
We have talked about the White Screen of Death before, and if you are seeing this instead of the login screen, you may have a few different possibilities. The cause could be memory limits reached, capacity exhausted for scripts or compatibility between themes and plugins; or a combination.
First place to look wold be to consider what you last did with your site and if it involved installing anything, you will need to start by removing it from the FTP. If that doesn’t do the trick, log into your FTP and rename your plugins or themes folder. Check your site, if you can login again, you are looking at an incompatible theme or plugin and now you need to find it. Copy the plugins from inside your renamed folder and in turn check each one with the site. There will be one that doesn’t work and removing it should mean you can log back in again. This is a more common issue than most people think; the solution is just a little more involved.
Your login file itself may be corrupted, and you will need to be in the FTP to resolve this one as well. You will need to figure out whether you deleted or made changes to the file or if it simply corrupted. The easiest way to resolve this is to back your WordPress site up and then redownload WordPress. Locate the wp-login.php file in the archive and replace the file in the WordPress install. Check to see if this worked and if not, open the file and find the line: $user_login = $user_data[“user_login”]; and replace the it with: $user_login = $user_data->user_login;. If this still doesn’t bring back the successful login, the login file may not have been the root cause of the issue.
You can also try deleting your .htaccess file. Similar to the login file, the .htaccess file can corrupt and prevent you from logging in. Take a back up of the file from your FTP server, remembering to also delete it from your root and wp-admin directories. If your login attempt works, simply go to the Settings and then Permalinks and select save, which will create a new .htaccess file.
All of these options also apply if you are experiencing a redirection loop when you try to log in. In other words when you put your credentials in, and are redirected back to the login page.
Still no luck? If these solutions to common WordPress login errors haven’t resolved your issue, it is possible you have somehow managed to delete your login. If you have other users of your site, try to get them to log in and if they are successful have them recreate your login if its not there. They simply have to go to the users menu and simply add a new user.
The last resort is professional help. Our team can provide assistance in getting you back into your WordPress site quickly and with our expertise, easily. The WPEZI team are across most errors and common troubleshooting tricks for the WordPress platform, our team are happy to help, whether it’s a one-time job or a lifetime of support. If you have found yourself in this predicament because of an incorrectly installed update or change in security or even just a malfunctioning theme or plugin, you might consider our support plans where we can do these jobs for you as they come up as well as regular back ups of your site and its data.
The last piece of advice we can give is to always back your site up completely before any update whether minor or significant and always test any updates or installs in your test environment first. This way you are protected in part from any failures in coding and its easy to revert back to your old site to fix any issues that arise. We have seen many occasions where sites have had to be rolled back to a version many months or even years old due to an inefficient back up regime. This is where our support plans really shine, as we do all of this automatically. Have a chat with us to find out more.
If you run into any trouble, please let us know, the WPEZI team are happy to provide WordPress support, whether you are a regular customer or it’s a one-off issue. Contact us via live chat today, it’s just in the bottom corner.
