Moderator
t-p
(@t-p)
Have you tried:
– deactivating ALL (yes all) plugins temporarily to see if this resolves the problem (plugin functions can interfere). If this works, re-activate them individually (one-by-one) to find the problematic plugin(s).
– resetting the plugins folder by FTP. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems. Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder (if you have created such folder).
– switching to the unedited default Theme (Twenty Sixteen) for a moment using the WP dashboard to rule out any theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).
Hey Tara. Is there a way to do any of this without the Dashboard? Cus I can’t access the dashboard.
Moderator
t-p
(@t-p)
Yes.
– If you can’t get into your admin dashboard, try resetting the plugins folder by FTP. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems. Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder (if you have created such folder). The easiest way is to rename that folder to mu-plugins-old.
– Try switching to the unedited default Theme (Twenty Sixteen) for a moment using FTP , or your web-host’s cPanel or whatever file management application your host provides (no Dashboard access required). Navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and switch to the default theme by renaming your current theme’s folder by adding “-old” to the end of the folder name. Alternately, you can remove other themes except the default theme. That will force your site to use it.
Alright, I’ve done as you suggested. Plugins are off and the theme is default (twenty sixteen). The issue remains the same though as wp-admin still doesn’t load. What are the next steps?
Moderator
t-p
(@t-p)
– Try MANUALLY updating. Download a fresh copy of the WordPress .zip file to your computer, unzip it, and use that to copy up all files and folders EXCEPT the wp-config.php file and the /wp-content/ directory. You may need to delete the old wp-admin and wp-includes folders and files on your server before uploading the new ones. Please read the Manual Update directions first.
– Backup: If you haven’t already done, always backup everything (including your database) before doing any actions, just in case something really goes wrong. You can never have enough backups!
Everything appears to be working again! Thanks a lot 🙂
