Try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.
If that does not resolve the issue, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).
Hi,
Follow these steps;
1) VERY IMPORTANT – create a backup of all files and the database.
2) Delete all files and folders except for the folder wp-content. You will need this folder. It contains all the files for your theme and plugin.
3) Replace all the WordPress files in the install download EXCEPT for wp-content.
4) Update wp-config.php with your database credentials. They can be retrieved in your current wp-config.php.
4) Test your website. If all seems well login into your admin panel and see if the database needs to be updated.
Hope this will help you.
I wouldn’t recommend deleting files yet. Seems like a plugin or theme function may be causing plugin.php to crash.
Hi,
manually resetting plugins both through PhPmyAdmin and file manager does not appear to work. I am trying to perform the second recommendation – rename the directory of current active theme – but I don’t know which of the themes I ls on the file manager is the active one. Is there a way to find this out via the file manager?
thanks
There isn’t a way to find out via the file manager, but if you remember the name of your theme, the directory’s name should be very similar.
If you don’t remember the name of your theme, you likely have either a /twentysixteen/ or /twentyfifteen/ directory in there, and if so just rename every theme directory except that one.
Hi,
followed instructions with no luck. I have performed the plugin disabling through phpmyadmin, changed the name of the plugins directory in wp-content and the names of every theme except twentyfifteen (do not have twentysixteen). I still get same fatal error. Should I follow through with the re-install?
Thank you!
Yes, now it’s time for that.
Try downloading WordPress again, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and delete then replace your copies of everything on the server except the wp-config.php file and the /wp-content/ directory with fresh copies from the download. This will effectively replace all of your core files without damaging your content and settings.
Some uploaders tend to be unreliable when overwriting files, so don’t forget to delete the original files before replacing them.
Done – I have a blank page loading
A blank page now, no errors?
Try resetting the plugins and theme again.
Reset plugins and theme and I can now see the wp! Bad news is that it looks like the admin was hacked and taken over by bots. That might have corrupted the files?
Also- I cannot access any directories below the homepage, which in this case is /fall2014/. They return a Error: requested URL index.php not found on this server. Is there a way to re establish this?
I cannot load any posts which do not display on the home page. So, “more posts” button does not work.
Lastly, Is there (and I probably know the answer) any backups that wp performs which I can access?
Thank you for your valuable help!
Double check the WordPress and Site Addresses at Settings -> General, are those correct? If one of those is wrong, that would explain why the display is messed up and other URLs aren’t loading.
If you can’t get that far, check the siteurl and home values in the database: https://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL#Changing_the_URL_directly_in_the_database
WordPress does not perform its own backups, but once you have the site back into working order, I highly recommend that you keep your own: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
I have access to the full dashboard and was able to see that both addresses look good. They are the same one and correspond with the server address.
The posts are there, at least I can see them when viewing all posts in the dashboard.
It looks like there is a program running in the background
– when I first load the site, I see a flash of a grey rectangle with spam text which quickly disappears.
– In the posts, when editing them, I see the original text and below it says “null” and then a spam href. When I delete and update, then reload, the spam code reappears in the post. Also, the permalink for that post does not work.
Is there a way to look for this spam program in my files?
Ok, carefully follow this guide. When you’re done, you may want to implement some (if not all) of the recommended security measures.
