wordfence blocking my admin login and password

Hi @camay200, thanks for your message.

I’m happy to provide you with instructions on how to get back into your site. Follow these steps:

• Please use FTP/SFTP — or any file manager your web host provides via their administration panel.
• Look inside the /wp-content/plugins/ directory and rename the wordfence directory to wordfence.bak.
• Once you have logged in to your WordPress admin you can name the folder back to wordfence again.
• Refresh your dashboard and you should be able to see Wordfence Active again. If not, go to the Plugins page and Activate it.

If you are not receiving emails, the unlock emails actually come from your website and not our servers. If you aren’t getting emails then you might want to check:

• The emails (they come from wordpress@yoursitename.com) are getting sent to your junk mail folder by your email client or provider. Make sure and whitelist or add your website to the list of safe domains so you get emails consistently.
• Your web server is having a problem with the email software on it. This isn’t like regular emails you send and receive, but rather server alert messages. Usually, a restart of postfix or sendmail (whichever is installed) can fix it. Your hosting provider may need to help with this.
• Your hosting provider has disabled SMTP from the server for some reason like preventing the server from being used to spam people.
• You have a third party plugin for sending emails with another service, like Gmail, which isn’t working. Reaching out to the plugin author for support can help.

Thanks,

Peter.

Hi @camay200, thanks for your reply.

Your host will provide a web-based file manager within an administration system such as cPanel or Plesk (two popular examples) which will enable you to view your site structure. You will have received these credentials to manage your site when you signed up as user access and various other options can be modified here. The credentials for this may be in a signup email.

If you also haven’t received any specific FTP/SFTP credentials to access your site’s file structure, sometimes the requirement is on you as the administrator to set up these accounts. Again, this is done through the host’s control panel of choice that I mentioned above.

If you need additional help on how to go about following my earlier instructions or are unable to find your credentials to administer your site, please contact your host’s support channels such as live chat or email and they’ll get you back on track.

Thanks,

Peter.

No problem @camay200, thanks for getting back to me.

If you have any other Wordfence issues in the future don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll be glad to help out.

Peter.