Title: 401 Authentication Error for WP-Admin
Last modified: April 28, 2017

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# 401 Authentication Error for WP-Admin

 *  [lunardat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lunardat/)
 * (@lunardat)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/)
 * The wp-admin URL for my website displays an antiquated-looking (and broken) login
   prompt instead of the modern login page. It’s an older browser-based login system
   of some sort that I’ve never seen before. On top of that, after refusing to authenticate(
   which doesn’t work anyway), the login page for WP is displayed but all the CSS
   appears to be removed. Further, images aren’t displaying properly on my main 
   site.
 * I recently installed a Let’s Encrypt certificate, and the site is set to be HTTPS-
   only (even though I can’t find an htaccess file on the server at all, so I don’t
   know where that setting is). I’m thinking it could be HTTPS-related, and the 
   assets are refusing to load over HTTPS for some reason. I just don’t know why.
 * Could anyone help me diagnose and fix this problem?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [sinip](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sinip/)
 * (@sinip)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/#post-9077730)
 * _The operation timed out when attempting to contact [http://www.lunardatasystems.com](http://www.lunardatasystems.com)._
 * If that’s your website…
 *  Thread Starter [lunardat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lunardat/)
 * (@lunardat)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/#post-9077816)
 * I tried reinstalling the server from scratch after messing around with the nginx
   configuration files. It seems like there’s an issue that occurs when I try to
   access the page using my domain rather than my IP. Accessing it via IP works,
   but when I change the WordPress settings to default to access it via the domain,
   my wp-admin page is replaced by a weird authentication prompt in the browser 
   which doesn’t allow me to log in.
 *  Thread Starter [lunardat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lunardat/)
 * (@lunardat)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/#post-9077850)
 * I think it’s a plugin. I’m going to reinstall it from scratch and manually add
   each plugin individually until I find the one that is causing problems.
 *  Thread Starter [lunardat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lunardat/)
 * (@lunardat)
 * [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/#post-9077910)
 * I figured it out. My host provided a stock WP CentOS image, and it has a pre-
   loaded admin account. Whenever I switched from IP to URL format in the settings,
   it must have reverted back to that original admin account instead of the one 
   I set up. I’ve reported the bug to them.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘401 Authentication Error for WP-Admin’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [lunardat](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lunardat/)
 * Last activity: [9 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/401-authentication-error-for-wp-admin/#post-9077910)
 * Status: not resolved

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