I've screwed up my ability to log into my Wordpress.org blog

[GanChan]

My ignorance has struck again. I maintain a Wordpress.org blog on my Yahoo Small Business account. YSB recently sent a notice that I needed to remove my wp-cache and wp-db-database plugins as part of a required upgrade to Wordpress 3.9.2. I did that, but now I can't summon up anything other than a blank screen when I try to reach the Wordpress.org login page.

The blog content appears to still be there, thankfully. But the tags, etc, no longer lead to specific posts (or to anything, for that matter).

What have I done?

 

[mobilehaathi]

Good thing you made a backup of those files, so you can revert your changes and carefully figure out the problem, right?

 

[D.T.]

So you have access to the filesystem and you just nuked those directories?

 

[GanChan]

I'm not sure what I did. I'll show the directories to a WordPress guy I know so he can inform me of the true depth of my stupidity. Then after I've mourned my loss, I guess I'll just create a new blog to replace the old one. And this time, I vow never to touch, delete, activate or deactivate anything ever again....

 

[rocknblogger]

I'm not sure what I did. I'll show the directories to a WordPress guy I know so he can inform me of the true depth of my stupidity. Then after I've mourned my loss, I guess I'll just create a new blog to replace the old one. And this time, I vow never to touch, delete, activate or deactivate anything ever again....

You can give this a try, but if you're using a CDN with WP-cache it may not help. Log in via FTP go to your plugins directory and rename it old-plugins. This will in effect deactivate all of your plugins. I had a similar problem as you in that I couldn't log into /WP-admin. All I got was a white screen. I knew however that it was one of my plugins that was causing the issue.

There's no guarantee and your milage may vary. I'm guessing you don't fully understand the WP-cache plugin. If this does work you'll probably have a lot of work to do to redirect your links properly. But cross that bridge later if you can log in.

Good luck!!

 

[GanChan]

I already tried renaming the plugin folder as "plugins.hold," based on someone else's suggestion, but I'll try again using "old-plugins."

My only aim at this point is to be able to log in. Anything else is gravy.

You can give this a try, but if you're using a CDN with WP-cache it may not help. Log in via FTP go to your plugins directory and rename it old-plugins. This will in effect deactivate all of your plugins. I had a similar problem as you in that I couldn't log into /WP-admin. All I got was a white screen. I knew however that it was one of my plugins that was causing the issue.

There's no guarantee and your milage may vary. I'm guessing you don't fully understand the WP-cache plugin. If this does work you'll probably have a lot of work to do to redirect your links properly. But cross that bridge later if you can log in.

Good luck!!

 

[rocknblogger]

I already tried renaming the plugin folder as "plugins.hold," based on someone else's suggestion, but I'll try again using "old-plugins."

My only aim at this point is to be able to log in. Anything else is gravy.

It's not going to matter what you rename it, it's not going to work. I understand what you did. You deactivated WP-cache before deactivating each individual function that it does. You also probably didn't purge the cache which doesn't help matters.

At this point I would stop messing with it and get a good WordPress developer. You can also try to get support from the WP-cache developers, though it ain't cheap.

Good luck my friend. A hard lesson learned.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Your permissions might be wrong?

 

[S.B.G]

I have my own hosting server for my wp.org website and I don't have these plugins at all. What do they do for you?

 

[rocknblogger]

I already tried renaming the plugin folder as "plugins.hold," based on someone else's suggestion, but I'll try again using "old-plugins."

My only aim at this point is to be able to log in. Anything else is gravy.

You can try one more thing. Log in through FTP and go to WP-content directory.
Look for advanced-cache.php, db.php, w3tc/ w3-total-cache-config.php in the wp-content/ directory. Once you find these files delete ( or rename them to .txt)

I forgot about this as it's been a while since I've worked as a wp dev.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Now that I think of it more...

You needed to disable them within WordPress to begin with, there were probably specific instructions to do so. Can you tell us the exact plugins you were using?

Try what rocknblogger said, and if that doesn't work you might try going here and downloading the previous version:

http://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/

Backup what you have now, and try replacing the core folders. (and NOT wp-content)

You might also want to open both a clean version of wp-config and compare it to the one in there too.

It wouldn't be a database problem. You can make sure of that by looking through it within MyPHPAdmin or whatever Yahoo gives you.

 

[rocknblogger]

I have my own hosting server for my wp.org website and I don't have these plugins at all. What do they do for you?

Well WP-cache is a caching plugin that does speed up your WordPress based website. But you really have to know how to use it and how it works.

If you have a heavy traffic website it's good but your better off going with either WPEngine.com or WebSynthesis.com for your hosting. They specialize in WordPress hosting and do all the caching for you. They're not cheap by any means but if your getting 500-1000 visitors per day they you should be able to afford it.

But if you don't and want to speed up your site, do your research and learn about WP-cache before activating it. You can install it, just don't activate all the features until you understand what they do and how they do it.

 

[laurim]

My website uses the WordPress engine. It's been a while since I worked behind the gui on it but for what it's worth, I've had login issues after changes in the past and what I was able to do was go into the sql database that stores all the website data (admin stuff, posts, etc.) using phpMyAdmin and work with that. At the very least, you can export the database with all your entries and start over with a clean install and re-import the entries back into it. The WordPress website gives great directions on how to export your posts into a database file. You need to be really careful digging around the database because if you accidentally delete important data you could create more trouble for yourself.

 

[S.B.G]

Well WP-cache is a caching plugin that does speed up your WordPress based website. But you really have to know how to use it and how it works.

If you have a heavy traffic website it's good but your better off going with either WPEngine.com or WebSynthesis.com for your hosting. They specialize in WordPress hosting and do all the caching for you. They're not cheap by any means but if your getting 500-1000 visitors per day they you should be able to afford it.

But if you don't and want to speed up your site, do your research and learn about WP-cache before activating it. You can install it, just don't activate all the features until you understand what they do and how they do it.

Thanks. I average about 100 visitors per day, so it doesn't appear that I would need anything like that.

 

[rocknblogger]

Thanks. I average about 100 visitors per day, so it doesn't appear that I would need anything like that.

I don't want to give you (or anyone else) the wrong impression. WP-Cache has been around for a very long time and in fact is a great plugin. Even with 100 visitors per day your site would probably benefit from it.

It does what it does quite well and my only warning is understand what it does before activating it. You should check out a tool called YSlow. It's an extension for Firefox, Chrome and I think Safari. It'll give you a detailed report and score on the load speed of your site. You should load a few different pages not just your home page. If you score in the 90's then you probably don't need it. If you score less check the report and then check what WP-Cache does and see if you can benefit from it.

You should also check out Google's webmaster tools. They have an entire section devoted to load speeds. It's one of the metrics they use when scoring a site. Put it this way; if you and I have equally valuable sites in the same niche but yours loads faster, yours will get better search engine rankings.

Good luck and hope that helps some!!

 

[960design]

My ignorance has struck again. I maintain a Wordpress.org blog on my Yahoo Small Business account. YSB recently sent a notice that I needed to remove my wp-cache and wp-db-database plugins as part of a required upgrade to Wordpress 3.9.2. I did that, but now I can't summon up anything other than a blank screen when I try to reach the Wordpress.org login page.

The blog content appears to still be there, thankfully. But the tags, etc, no longer lead to specific posts (or to anything, for that matter).

What have I done?

I'm sorry for your troubles. I know you don't need to hear this ( beating a dead horse ) but for everyone else out there. This is why you use a pro host. They don't even have to cost much ( less than $60 / year ). Had I done something like deleting the database ( I would never do something like that... at least not again, after the last time I didn't do it ) all I have to do is click the little restore from last backup. Wait a couple of seconds and viola, back in business.

 

[S.B.G]

I don't want to give you (or anyone else) the wrong impression. WP-Cache has been around for a very long time and in fact is a great plugin. Even with 100 visitors per day your site would probably benefit from it.

It does what it does quite well and my only warning is understand what it does before activating it. You should check out a tool called YSlow. It's an extension for Firefox, Chrome and I think Safari. It'll give you a detailed report and score on the load speed of your site. You should load a few different pages not just your home page. If you score in the 90's then you probably don't need it. If you score less check the report and then check what WP-Cache does and see if you can benefit from it.

You should also check out Google's webmaster tools. They have an entire section devoted to load speeds. It's one of the metrics they use when scoring a site. Put it this way; if you and I have equally valuable sites in the same niche but yours loads faster, yours will get better search engine rankings.

Good luck and hope that helps some!!

Thanks for the explanation. I'll have to check it out later on.