WordPress.org

1. rgreenlees
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Hello all,

   I'm new to wordpress and web design in general. I set up a Xampp installation and installed wordpress into it, creating a new database and setting up my administrator user and pass.

   The problem I have is that for some reason, wordpress is not saving my login details, or is changing them without telling me. Upon initial creation of the wordpress database, I can log in just fine and I select "remember me" to avoid having to type a log in every time. I work on my site a little using the tools available, everything is great.

   However, a couple of days later I'll try to login and find that it has not only forgotten me (thus prompting me for user/pass again), but it point blank refuses to accept my user and pass combination. Nothing works. I can't even change the password manually through PHPMyAdmin, I commit the change to the database but it still refuses to accept any login. Changing the username doesn't help either.

   This is getting extremely frustrating as I have already had to delete and rebuild the database 3 times, losing all of my work each time. Can anyone suggest why wordpress wont let me log in after a day or so? Like I said I'm new to this so I haven't a clue what to do and I'm sure it's a setting somewhere either in wordpress or probably PHPMyAdmin...

2. peredur
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Are we talking about your database login or your WordPress login here? If we're talking about your WP password and you're trying to store a plaintext password to the database, you're bound to come to grief. WP encrypts all user passwords.

   If we're talking about your database login, that's something else entirely and nothing to do with WP as I'm sure you know.

   I never use the 'remember me' thingy, so I can't say how well that works. I just use Firefox's password store and I've never had any trouble across literally hundreds of WP installations.

   It's hard to say what's causing the problem you're experiencing without access to your installation (which you should never provide, of course, except to people you know and trust), but if I were you, I'd create some 'spare' users with admin permissions so you don't ever get locked out. In other words, if one account goes belly up, you can always use another. Since it's a local installation and not publicly accessible, you probably don't have to be too coy about saving plain text versions of the passwords in a text file somewhere, too.

   One thing's for sure. WP is not altering user details or passwords without being told to do so. So whatever's happening, it's not happening in WP. However, there'd be no reason not to create a backup of your db when it's in a known working state. Then, if you do have problems, you could restore it (or just the bits you need) so that at least you don't lose your work.

   Just some suggestions. Others might have some additional and perhaps better ones.

   HTH

   PAE

3. rgreenlees
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Hi Peredur, thank you for the reply.

   I'm talking about the WordPress login when I try to access /wp-admin. I've tried using firefox, Chrome and IE and each time, upon successful initial login, I've told the browser to remember the password. This doesn't work however as on subsequent attempts to login, WordPress will still reject my password even when my browser automatically fills the right password in there.

   I should also mention that when trying to manually alter the password through PHPMyAdmin, I select the "MD5" option before committing the changes and it is still rejecting the new password. I can successfully change the username however, so it looks like my changes are being committed to the DB.

   I was wondering if anyone had come across this before. Like I said it's a real show-stopper. I can try backing up and restoring the database every time I want to log in, but I'd rather fix the problem and just wait until I can log in consistently if necessary. In the meantime, I'll try your suggestion of creating multiple admin accounts and hoping at least one is working at any one time.

4. peredur
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Have you read this article?

   The chances of the problem lying with WordPress are vanishingly small, IMO. If that were not the case, WP forums would be crammed with posts like yours and WP would not be the runaway success that it is.

   I might be wrong, of course. It has been known, but if WP is not recognising a password that is identical to the one used for a previous login then my money is on something messing with the database. What that something is I have no idea, I'm afraid.

   The only thing even vaguely constructive that I can find to say is that I very rarely develop WP sites locally. I can't remember the last time I did so. If I want to hide the site from the world whilst I do the development, I install a plugin like "Maintenance Mode" so that casual browsers only see a "Site under maintenance" page.

   Sorry I can't be more helpful

   Cheers

   PAE

5. rgreenlees
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   Hi Peredur,

   I had a serious think about the problem, and came to the conclusion that it could be to do with my company laptop, which connects through VPN and naturally will also have quite stringent firewalls running. I have tried setting up XAMPP and WordPress on my home laptop and have not come across this issue yet. Coupled with the fact that apparently this is almost a unique problem, I think I might have pinpointed the cause.

   Thanks for your help however, it's very much appreciated!

6. peredur
   Member
   Posted 4 months ago #

   No problem. I'm glad it's worked out for you.

   Cheers

   PAE

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