Normally, this key is generated for your site when Wordfence is first installed — is this a new installation, or have you had Wordfence on this site for a while?
The best way to regenerate it is to reinstall Wordfence, using the steps on the page below. This process will reset your options and any permanently blocked IPs, advanced blocking, etc. You might be able to save these options using the “Export Wordfence Settings” button at the bottom of the options page, then save the long “token” it gives you, and import the settings after reinstalling — I’m not sure if this will bring back the same problem with the missing encryption key though.
Here are the reinstallation instructions:
How to reinstall Wordfence completely
I actually haven’t seen this problem before — it is most likely caused by a problem with the database at your host, so if this does not work, just let me know.
-Matt R
@annasbyra: Just checking in, since this was an unusual issue — were you able to get Wordfence’s settings to reset, and generate a new encryption key?
-Matt R
I had this exact issue which I believe was caused by my web host as they were having major outages with the mysql service constantly crashing and restarting which was discovered after getting lots of “database unavailable” error pages on the website.
I followed MattR’s steps and exported the config, performed the reinstallation by deactivation of Wordfence then imported the config, now Wordfence appears to be healthy.
Cheers.
– Cameron
