• We’ve been using Wordfence with success for most of this year, but yesterday coworkers of mine in a different location started getting the message that they were permanently locked out by admin.

    I (being on the opposite side of the country) have not been able to reproduce the issue. It appeared to be only affecting one user yesterday, but today multiple people are reporting the same.

    I have tried everything from renaming/deactivating the plugin, to deleting the plugin and all data. I have also cleared our site’s caches as well as Cloudflare cache, to no avail.

    Can anyone help figure out why users are unable to access the site and continue getting this Wordfence error message, despite the fact that the plugin has been completely removed from the site?

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Hi sholmk,
    It’s not really possible for the plugin to do that if it has been removed. You could ask the person to clear their browser cache. Otherwise, can you please provide the exact blocked message they are getting? If you can get them to send you a screenshot that would be most helpful.

    Thread Starter sholmk12

    (@sholmk12)

    Hi, I have asked users to clear their cache, which has not eliminated the error message. I am also having users report that this is happening in incognito mode as well.

    All site caches have been cleared as well as Cloudflare.

    Here is a screenshot of the issue: https://i.imgur.com/5ZnTw9X.jpg

    Thread Starter sholmk12

    (@sholmk12)

    Thread Starter sholmk12

    (@sholmk12)

    I was just able to reproduce the issue for the first time by visiting our homepage http://www.learningliftoff.com in a Chrome incognito window. In a regular browser window I’m logged in and able to access all pages of the site.

    I also found that I’m only seeing this error message on the homepage, but not on content pages.

    Here is the fully copy of the error, the unlock email feature doesn’t work, it takes me to a 404 page.

    ———————————

    Your access to this site has been limited

    Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)

    Reason: Manual permanent block by admin

    Important note for site admins: If you are the administrator of this website note that your access has been limited because you broke one of the Wordfence advanced blocking rules. The reason your access was limited is: “Manual permanent block by admin”.

    If this is a false positive, meaning that your access to your own site has been limited incorrectly, then you will need to regain access to your site, go to the Wordfence “options” page, go to the section for Rate Limiting Rules and disable the rule that caused you to be blocked. For example, if you were blocked because it was detected that you are a fake Google crawler, then disable the rule that blocks fake google crawlers. Or if you were blocked because you were accessing your site too quickly, then increase the number of accesses allowed per minute.

    If you’re still having trouble, then simply disable the Wordfence advanced blocking and you will still benefit from the other security features that Wordfence provides.

    If you are a site administrator and have been accidentally locked out, please enter your email in the box below and click “Send”. If the email address you enter belongs to a known site administrator or someone set to receive Wordfence alerts, we will send you an email to help you regain access. Please read this FAQ entry if this does not work.

    Send me an unlock email

    This response was generated by Wordfence.

    Hi!
    Then you want to make sure that you have not blocked your own servers IP. Check the page “Blocked IPs” in Wordfence and remove any IPs belonging to your server or any proxies you may be using. Since it says “Manual block by admin” one of the manual blocks you have made must be the cause. If you are unsure, you can choose to clear all manually blocked IPs.

    Thread Starter sholmk12

    (@sholmk12)

    Thank you for the reply. I have manually cleared all blocked IP addresses, but users are still reporting the issue when trying to access our homepage, and both GTMetrix and Google Pagespeed Insights are reporting this error as well. Any additional ideas?

    Well if you deactivate the plugin and you are still getting the block there are really only two options that I see. Either your site is cached somehow or there is another copy of Wordfence running on the same server but in a different directory that is doing the blocks. Scripts can’t really run unless they are installed.

    I am able to see your site now, I was not able to do so 5 minutes ago. Seems like you found the cause. If you have time, let me know!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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