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How to Fix WordPress Login Page Refreshing and Redirecting Issue

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Does your WordPress login page keep refreshing and redirecting when you try to log in to your website?

This issue locks you out of the WordPress admin area, meaning you are unable to work on your website.

In this article, we will show you how to fix the WordPress login page refreshing and redirecting issue.

Fixing the login page redirect and refresh issue in WordPress

Note: If you want to try the advanced steps in this WordPress tutorial, then please create a backup of your site first. See our guide on how to manually create a WordPress database backup.

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If you don’t like the video or prefer the written version instead, then please continue reading.

What Causes the Login Page Refresh and Redirect Issue in WordPress?

Login issues can be caused by different errors, such as the error establishing database connection, internal server error, or the white screen of death. Another type of login error is when your WordPress login page keeps refreshing and redirecting back to the login screen.

Incorrect WordPress URL settings and failure to set login cookies are the most common reasons causing the login page redirect and refresh issue.

Normally, when you log in, WordPress validates your username and password and then sets a login cookie in your browser. After that, it redirects you to the WordPress admin area.

If WordPress fails to set the login cookie correctly or your WordPress admin area URL is incorrect, then you will be redirected back to the login page instead of the admin dashboard.

Login page redirect issue in WordPress

That being said, let’s troubleshoot and fix the WordPress login page redirect and refresh issue.

Clear Cookies to Resolve Login Issues

WordPress uses cookies for login authentication, so the first step in troubleshooting WordPress login issues is the simplest one. You will need to clear your browser cookies and cache.

In Google Chrome, simply click on the browser settings menu and then select More Tools » Clear Browsing Data.

Clear browsing data in Google Chrome

This will launch the Chrome Settings page with a ‘Clear Browsing Data’ popup displayed on the screen.

From here, you need to select the ‘Clear cookies and other site data’ and ‘Cached images and files’ options.

Clear cookies and cache in Google chrome

Next, click on the ‘Clear data’ button, and Google Chrome will clear the browser cache.

Also, make sure that your browser has cookies enabled. After doing that, restart your browser and then try to log in. This should fix the issue for most folks.

We have a complete guide with screenshots showing how to clear the cache and cookies in all major browsers.

Update WordPress URL Settings

WordPress comes with settings for the URL of your website and the URL of your WordPress installation.

If you had access to your WordPress admin area, then you could see this option on the Settings » General page.

WordPress URL settings

If these URLs are incorrect, then WordPress will redirect you back to the login page.

Since you are unable to access the WordPress admin area, you will need to edit the wp-config.php file to fix this issue.

The wp-config.php file is a special file in WordPress that contains your important WordPress settings. You can access it using an FTP client or via the File Manager app in your WordPress hosting account dashboard.

Editing wp-config.php file via FTP

You will find the wp-config.php file in your site’s root folder. Simply edit the file and paste the following code just before the line that says, ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing’.

define('WP_HOME','https://www.example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://www.example.com');
Hosted with ❤️ by WPCode
1-click Use in WordPress

Don’t forget to replace ‘example.com’ with your own domain name.

After that, save your changes and upload the file back to your website.

You can now visit your WordPress website and try to log in. Hopefully, this will have fixed the issue for you. If it didn’t, then continue reading for additional troubleshooting steps.

Delete .htaccess File in WordPress

Sometimes .htaccess file can get corrupted, which can result in internal server errors or the login page refreshing error.

Simply access your website using an FTP client or via the File Manager app in your hosting account dashboard.

Once connected, locate the .htaccess file in the root folder of your website and download it to your computer as a backup.

Delete .htaccess file in WordPress

After that, go ahead and delete the .htaccess file from your website.

Next, open the wp-admin directory, and if there is a .htaccess file there, then go ahead and delete it as well.

You can now try to log in to your WordPress website. If you succeed, then this means that your .htaccess file was stopping you from logging in to WordPress.

Once you are logged in, simply go to the Settings » Permalinks page in the WordPress admin area and click on the ‘Save’ button without making any changes. This will generate a new .htaccess file for your website.

Deactivate All WordPress Plugins

Sometimes WordPress plugins can cause this issue, especially if there is a conflict between two plugins.

To deactivate all your WordPress plugins, connect to your website using an FTP client or via the File Manager app in your hosting account dashboard.

Once connected, go to the /wp-content/ directory. Inside it, you will see a folder named ‘plugins’. This is where WordPress installs all your plugins.

Rename plugins folder to deactivate all plugins

Simply rename the plugins folder to ‘plugins_backup’. This will deactivate all WordPress plugins installed on your website.

We also have a detailed tutorial on how to deactivate all WordPress plugins when you are unable to access WP-Admin.

Once you have deactivated all plugins, try logging in to your WordPress site. If you succeed, then this means that one of your plugins was causing the issue.

Revert Back to the Default Theme

WordPress themes can also cause conflicts after upgrading to a newer version of WordPress or the theme itself. To find out whether the problem is being caused by your theme, you will need to deactivate it.

The process is similar to deactivating plugins. Connect to your website using an FTP client. Then, you must go to /wp-content/themes/ directory and rename your current theme directory to ‘themes_backup’.

Once you have done that, then try logging in again. If you succeed, then this means your theme was causing the issue.

You can now reinstall a fresh copy of your theme to see if this resolves the issue. If the problem reappears, then you will need to contact your theme’s support or switch to a different WordPress theme.

We hope this article helped you resolve the WordPress login page refreshing and redirecting issue. You may also want to see our complete WordPress troubleshooting guide or check out our top picks for the best WordPress plugins and tools to grow your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Reader Interactions

350 CommentsLeave a Reply

    • If none of the methods from this article are working for you, we would recommend reaching out to your hosting provider for them to check if there are any errors on their end.

      Reply

      Admin

  2. Thanks a lot,

    You saved my day,
    I have changed the file wp-config.php as described in the tutorial and that worked for me.

    My best regards.

    Reply

  3. I messed around with the Update WordPress URL Settings
    and that was a world of pain to correct as it took my whole site down. I had to correct it through changing the config settings using FTP.

    Reply

    • The settings are definitely powerful and can cause issues if you change them incorrectly. Glad you were able to fix the issue using FTP!

      Reply

      Admin

  5. Tried all and none worked. Here is what worked:
    Went to wp-config.php and set define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, false); to define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );
    Tried logging in again and got “usermeta table missing” error.
    Thats when I realised I had a missing table. Got it from another installation and changed the table prefix to meet current db.
    Worked immediately

    Reply

    • Thank you for sharing this, for most beginners we recommend reaching out to their hosting provider if our recommendations do not work as they can check for less beginner friendly errors.

      Reply

      Admin

  6. Thank you – that tip about restoring the admin page by adding two lines of code in the config file seems to work nicely (still crossing fingers), but I have hope now, which I didn´t earlier.

    Reply

  7. Glad our guide could help and if you hadn’t set up SSL before changing to https that would definitely be the most likely cause.

    Reply

    Admin

  8. Thank You, it worked.

    I initially had the siteurl & wp address url changed to “https”, and this made me unable to log-in my dashboard. Maybe because I had not ssl at my host set-up.

    Re-changing the “https” to “http” helped me log-in back.

    Reply

  9. Everything didn’t work. But after downgrading my PHP from 7.4 to 7.2, I was able to login.

    Kinda weird, now I’m using an older PHP version.

    Did you encounter an issue similar to mine? I want to use the newer PHP version, but it doesn’t let me login in wp-admin.

    Reply

  10. This issue has never happened to me before, but the 2nd / plugin option worked for me right away.

    This website is a lifesaver! Thank you so much!

    Reply

  12. I tried some of these steps, but the problem turned out to be elsewhere: my site was setup as a ‘multisite’ but in wp-config file it said ‘subdomain_install’ as ‘false’, when I changed it to ‘true’, I could login to the site normally without redirects

    Reply

    • This was also my problem! I tried all the steps mentioned in the article, but after changing the ‘subdomain_install’ from false to true in the wp-config.php file it worked!!

      Thanks!!

      Reply

    • I have been trying to solve this for MONTHS… Thanks to your comment, I was able to fix it in about 10 seconds. Thank you so much for sharing!

      This should be included in the tutorial.

      Reply

  14. I followed the instructions to deactivate all plugins and I now have access to wp-admin again! The instructions were easy to follow, and thanks so much for putting them out there.

    Reply

  15. Thanks for this great help. The plugin folder renaming worked for me. There was an issue with one of the plugins. Thanks once again :)

    Reply

  17. I was looking for a solution for over 5 hours now – nothing worked. But deleting the htaccess file in the wp-admin directory helped!
    I cant thank you enough.
    Made my day.

    Reply

  19. Hey but now its showing that cookies are disable in your browser please enable cookies. What can I do now?

    Reply

  22. Thank you for sharing those tips, unfortunately none of them have worked for me. I even uninstalled the whole wordpress plugin. I don’t know what should i do next :(

    Reply

  24. This was a lifesaver! We were able to follow step-by-step and avoid a major problem!

    Great information!

    Reply

  25. I couldn’t find my wp admin page. It shows

    “There has been a critical error on your website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.

    Learn more about debugging in WordPress.”

    How can I fix this error?

    Reply

  26. Hi, i have change by mistake my url and now the domain wp admin login url bring me to other site and i cont have ftp access how i can change back them?

    Reply

    • You can either reach out to your hosting provider or if you have phpMyAdmin access you could change the options table and update the URL and address.

      Reply

      Admin

  27. define(‘WP_HOME’,’https://www.example.com’);
    define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’https://www.example.com’);

    where do these two lines add in wp-config.php file?

    At Last OR At Start?

    Please clarify

    Reply

    • As we state in the article: paste the code just before the line that says ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing’.

      Reply

      Admin

  29. Thank you so much for your post. I’m a newbie with WP. These lines worked for me

    define(‘WP_HOME’,’http://example.com’);
    define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’http://example.com’);

    I also changed the below line from false to true.

    define( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );

    Reply

    • Glad our recommendation could help, the WP_Debug you should be able to return to false should you want :)

      Reply

      Admin

  30. thank u so much after spending so much time after deleting that .htacces and restart my mac open the website finally thanks for ur time

    Reply

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