Have you tried:
– deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).
– switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific problems.
– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.
– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder and wp-config.php & root .htaccess files – from a fresh download of WordPress 3.9. Make sure that you delete the old copies of files & folder before uploading the new ones.
Why are you using an old copy of WordPress? Were you aware that your site is currently running a very real risk of being hacked? You need to upgrade WordPress asap.
esmi, thanks for your suggestions.
I’ve deactivated all plugins; no result. I’ve reverted to the 20-13 theme (is that the name?); no result. I’ll try resetting the plugins folder as described (how strange that an inactive plugin might have an effect) then refreshing the installation if necessary.
But why do you say I’m using an old copy of WordPress? I’m using 3.9.1. Perhaps you’ve sent a boilerplate reply that doesn’t match my situation?
I’ve deactivated the plugins by both methods: from the Dashboard and phpMyAdmin. Both methods successfully replace the contents of wp_options|active_plugins with a:0:{} without fixing the problem. I activated the default WordPress theme. Finally I downloaded the 3.9.1 zip file and refreshed all the folders and files according to your instructions.
But the error remains, which is: clicking the Preview, Save Draft and Publish buttons attempts to access http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/wp/wp-admin/post.php, producing error 404.
On the Edit Post screen, hovering over the Draft and Publish buttons reveals no hyperlink in Firefox. Hovering over the Preview button reveals a hyperlink to http://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/?p=18695&preview=true, though clicking it attempts to access post.php and gives the 404 error. If I paste that hyperlink (…preview=true) into the address bar, the preview appears correctly, except that if I first alter the post the alterations aren’t included.
I can post a short article, but not a long one. I haven’t experimented to find the exact number of characters that can be posted. Comments seem to be behaving normally. I’ve just checked and I can update a short post but cannot transform it into a long post.
I turned on SCRIPT_DEBUG and Firefox’s Web Console. It shows WordPress looking for …wp-admin/admin-ajax.php every minute or so and reporting error 404 Not Found. A file of that name exists in that directory.
More information on the JavaScript errors.
Turning on SCRIPT_DEBUG didn’t fix the error. I get the same error in IE 11 and Chrome 35. The file concerned seems to be post.php. I don’t know where to find the line number, or how better to describe the context.
In four days I’ve had one response (within seconds, thanks!) but no success. Nothing has fixed the problem of being unable to save drafts, preview posts or change existing posts. I can post only tiny articles, maybe 50 or 100 words or so.
I’m about to reinstall the WordPress files yet again, but if anyone can throw some light on this mysterious fault then I’m all ears.
Is there something my web host might have done to break WordPress in this way?
esmi, or any other volunteers:
I have followed your suggestions to fix the errors but nothing worked. Then, this evening, I have spent several hours very carefully following your instructions (for the second time) to replace the WordPress files with fresh ones from a new download. But the errors remain. I still cannot save a draft post, nor preview a post nor publish a post longer than a couple of hundred words (I don’t know exactly). I need help, please.
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Have you spoken to your Web host to see whether they have any insight as to why these files cannot be accessed?
I also have this issue. My blog has run without problems for 5 years, and all of a sudden I can’t do anything – constant 404 error on admin-ajax.php and post.php 😐
The problem is resolved, I think. That is, I’ve changed themes but otherwise left the WordPress setup unchanged. Thanks to those who helped. Here’s an update so others might get some clues to their own problems.
After changing the theme I could post short posts. While editing these I saw sometimes that the Save Draft, Preview and Publish buttons switched their availability while WordPress saved the post or when I returned from the preview screen. Then occasionally they remained unavailable and the blog was unresponsive. But I noticed at the top of the Edit Post screen a message indicating there was a more recent (or at least different) version of the post. When I retrieved it I saw it usually contained the latest edits, so I had lost nothing. While experimenting with this I kept copies of my changes outside WordPress. This gave me a method to write longer posts. Eventually even retrieving the more recent version became unnecessary.
Now it seems to work normally, but I frequently save drafts.
But the interesting thing is that a couple of days ago I emailed my web host provider about an unrelated problem and they remarked that MOD_security had been changed at the time my blog fell over, saying the reason for doing so was to prevent WordPress from being hacked.
Andrew had suggested (above) that I speak to my web host but I discarded the idea because they had previously told me they knew nothing about WordPress. That was a mistake.
