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WPBeginner» Blog» Tutorials» How To Unblock Limit Login Attempts in WordPress

How To Unblock Limit Login Attempts in WordPress

Last updated on May 18th, 2014 by Editorial Staff
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How To Unblock Limit Login Attempts in WordPress

Often WordPress hosting companies recommend that you install a plugin called Limit Login Attempts. We love, use, and recommend it to all of our users. However in some cases, Limit Login Attempt may lock you out too, if you entered the wrong password a few times. In this article, we will show you how to unblock limit login attempts plugin in WordPress.

FTP or File Manager Method

The easiest solution for beginners is to delete Limit Login Attempts plugin using FTP and then re-install it later once you can login.

You need to login to your site via FTP and then go to /wp-content/plugins/. Once you’re there, you can simply delete the limit-login-attempts plugin folder.

For those who don’t know how to use FTP (check out our FTP video).

You can also do this using your web host’s cPanel File Manager.

cPanel File Manager

Simply browse to /wp-content/plugins/ and delete the limit-login-attempts folder.

MySQL Query

phpMyAdmin SQL Query

For advanced users who are familiar with MySQL and phpMyAdmin, you can easily run the following SQL query, and it will clear all lockouts.

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = '' WHERE option_name = 'limit_login_lockouts' LIMIT 1;

If you want to unblock your specific IP e.g. 111.222.111.222, then run a query like this:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = REPLACE(option_value, '111.222.111.222', '') WHERE option_name = 'limit_login_lockouts' LIMIT 1;

Make sure to update your IP address and also the database table prefix if you changed your database prefix.

We hope this article helped you unblock limit login attempts in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please consider following us on Twitter.

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18 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Annie Henson says:
    Sep 30, 2019 at 6:37 am

    Thank You so much guys :) You saved me a lot of hours.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 30, 2019 at 10:46 am

      You’re welcome, glad our guide could help :)

      Reply
  2. voku says:
    Jul 26, 2019 at 5:01 pm

    Thanks for this basic blog posts … this is really helpful content. :-)

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 29, 2019 at 11:13 am

      Glad our content could be helpful :)

      Reply
  3. Dave says:
    Sep 21, 2018 at 5:11 am

    Great advice on deleting the plugin folder. It works! If the prospect of deleting that folders concerns you, you can also simply rename the file from the file manager. This disables the plugin without deleting. Once logged into WP change the name back and you should be good to go.

    Reply
  4. Sachi Knight says:
    Aug 1, 2018 at 4:40 am

    Thank you! The SQL query worked a treat. Saved me being locked out of my own Site for 48 hours, lol. Chrome occasionally messes up passwords, and I have a 1-chance login. (at least I know it works. :-) )

    Reply
  5. scott says:
    Mar 8, 2018 at 10:47 pm

    Thank you this worked great, now I just need to find out why it wont take my password and tells me my email for lost password is wrong despite knowing 100% positive its the right one lol

    Reply
    • Colleen says:
      Apr 11, 2018 at 10:12 pm

      Mine locked me out and says my password is wrong. This is just crazy. Many are having this problem.

      Reply
      • WPBeginner Support says:
        Apr 12, 2018 at 7:19 pm

        Hi Colleen,

        You can deactivate all WordPress plugins to regain access to your website.

        Reply
  6. Muntazir Abbas says:
    Nov 16, 2017 at 3:11 am

    My wordpress site is locked some time for 1 hour or 3 min, how can i solve this problem??

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 16, 2017 at 4:56 am

      Hi Muntazir,

      Do you see an error when you are locked out?

      Reply
  7. Russell Symonds says:
    Mar 3, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Thank you! I am grateful for this perfectly ingenious and straightforward information which has saved me from what would otherwise have been a catastrophe.

    Reply
  8. Leon says:
    Dec 20, 2016 at 7:07 pm

    I did it via file manager but im still loked out. please help

    Reply
  9. Robin says:
    Apr 11, 2016 at 4:39 am

    The most helpful and straightforward. Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Megan says:
    Apr 28, 2015 at 1:42 am

    Is there another plugin you recommend to limit login attempts now? Limit Login Attempts says it hasn’t been updated in over 2 years.

    Reply
    • Editorial Staff says:
      Apr 28, 2015 at 4:16 am

      Yes we recommend using Login Lockdown — does the same thing and it’s up to date.

      https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-lockdown/

      Reply
  11. Howard Lee Harkness says:
    May 21, 2014 at 3:10 pm

    Seems to me that the best solution for the self-lockout problem is prevention. I use LastPass to generate and track secure passwords (there are other utilities that may be just as good or even better, but I like LastPass/XMarks).

    So far (more than 2 years of using Limit Login Attempts), I have never locked myself out of any of my admin accounts.

    Reply
  12. Techerhut says:
    May 21, 2014 at 9:57 am

    Hi Syed,

    Great Tutorial.
    The first one is easier. But one should know every possible way of doing a thing. The second one – using MYSQL Query is new for me and I learned it from here.

    Thanks for the posting this.

    ~Sumit

    Reply

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