This past weekend, we had a user who was locked out of WordPress Admin panel of their site. While we had written numerous articles covering each specific issue, we realized that we should combine all of them at one place to make it easier for others. In this article, we will show you what to do when you are locked out of WordPress Admin (wp-admin), so you can regain access to your site.
There are few reasons why you could be locked out of WordPress admin, so let’s take a look at each of them one by one. Hopefully through this process of elimination, you will be able to figure out the solution for your problem.
Error Establishing Database Connection
Are you seeing this error on your entire site? The reason why you get this error is because WordPress is unable to establish a database connection. This could happen for various reasons. It could happen if your database got corrupted for some reason. It could happen if your web hosting server is having some issues. If this is your issue, then please refer to our guide on how to fix the error establishing database connection in WordPress.
White Screen of Death
Are you seeing a white screen on your WordPress admin? This issue is often referred to as the WordPress white screen of death. It usually happen because you exhausted the memory limit. It could be caused by a poorly coded plugin or theme. It could also be caused by unreliable web hosting. If you are seeing this error, then please refer to our guide on how to Fix the WordPress white screen of death.
Incorrect Password Issue
Sometimes, even when you are typing the correct username and password combination, you won’t be able to login. When you try to reset your password, you never receive the email. This can happen if you were a victim of a hack. We would recommend that you reset your WordPress password from phpMyAdmin.
This method can be a bit overwhelming for new users, but this is your best bet.
Lost Admin Privileges
Sometimes, you may be able to login to your WordPress admin, but you don’t see any of the admin functionality. For example, no plugins, no themes etc. This could happen if your user permissions were modified. Often this happen due to a hack. Hackers would infect your site, and then delete your admin privileges. In this case, you should add an admin user to the WordPress database via MySQL (phpMyAdmin).
PHP Errors (i.e Syntax error, unexpected function etc)
These PHP errors usually happen when you are pasting the code from a website. Often beginners use the built-in WordPress editor from their dashboard. While that feature is pretty handy, but if you don’t know what you are doing, then it can be a disaster. If you pasted a code from a website which locked you out of your WordPress admin, then the first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. Now the only way to fix this issue is using a FTP program (How to use FTP). Once you have installed the FTP program, login to your site. Go to the theme file that you modified. Most likely it was the functions.php file. Now get rid of the code that you added in there. Re-upload the file, and you should be good to go.
Before you go on the site and comment “this code broke my website”, please refer to our beginner’s guide to pasting snippets from the web into WordPress. This is just to prevent you from looking like a fool on the web. Often its hard to admit that the mistake might be yours, so make sure of that first before you point the finger at someone else.
Hopefully after going through all of these possible scenarios, you have already fixed your site. If one of these solutions helped fix your issue, then please let us know in the comments. If you have a solution that is not mentioned in this article, then please share it in the comments as well.
Hello,
I have WordPress (latest version), Installed Locally with MAMP on my mac, and everything seems fine UNTIL, I activate a plugin. Once I activate this plugin, the entire thing crashes and I can’t do anything but to erase wordpress and reinstall it again. I literally can’t access anything on my dashboard, or any of the options such as plugins, etc. The whole thing is just frozen.
I don’t get any error or Syntax message, I simply can’t do anything at all.
Can someone please help me fix this issue?
Thanks and have a wonderful day!!!
You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support and let them know about the issue, you could also try the recommendations in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death/
I have been locked out of wp-login.php on my pc only, after i overrided it by login via google plus but i can access wp-login.php through other devices…. please reply ASAP so that i can access it on my pc too
If you’re not using a security plugin on your site then you would want to reach out to your hosting provider. If you do have a security plugin you can disable it using the method in our article here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-deactivate-all-plugins-when-not-able-to-access-wp-admin/
I was locked out of my wp admin panel after installing a premium theme, I guess it was as a result of many free themes and plugins I previously installed, I have been trying to get my ftp details from wordpress so I can troubleshoot from filezella,but it has not been ssuccessful.
For your FTP information, rather than reaching out to WordPress, you would need to reach out to your hosting provider and they would be able to give you that information.
I was attempting to update some pages on my website, and was eventually locked out of my website. Now, all I get when I go to the website, from any browser, is the following error message-
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_FUNCTION in /home/content/77/7030077/html/wp-content/plugins/redirection/redirection.php on line 100
I have no idea how to access my website and correct this error. Please help…
It looks like your redirection plugin may be encountering an error, you should be able to disable it using our guide here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-deactivate-all-plugins-when-not-able-to-access-wp-admin/
to allow you to log back into your site.
Jetpack has blocked my IP address to the login page. However, the IP address that is shown is not mine, but originates in San Jose, Calif. I’m in Glens Falls, NY. I was instructed to send a link to my email address so I could try getting in.
Fortunately, only one of my sites is being attacked. But it is an important one, so I’m just a little freaked by this. I sure would appreciate any advice that would help me resolve this!
With Jetpack blocking your UP address, you would want to reach out to Jetpack’s support and explain the situation and they should be able to assist.
From today, I am getting this error message in wordpress after I started making changes to integrate and work with Woocommerce.
This is the message “You have reached the maximum number of requests that is permitted to make per hour. The current rate limit window resets on……”
Many things are not working in the WP Dashboard after I got this message. Google search did not provide much clue.
Why I am getting this message? Is WP or Woocommerce responsible for this? What is the fix?
You may want to reach out to your hosting provider to ensure that is not a limit set by them causing that error.
hi
I have come across an issue with the login attempts since I have activated my Loginizer plugin. I have been unable to login as an admin into my WordPress. I tried changing my password in my phpadmin, but it failed too. I tried login with the password and id from my Cpanel still it shows error in login id or password, please suggest me a solution.
You can disable the plugin using the method in: https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-deactivate-all-plugins-when-not-able-to-access-wp-admin/
Hi,
I am trying to install WordPress on localhost and keep getting the message ‘Sorry, that isn’t a valid email address. Email addresses look like username@example.com.’. Any email I try (all valid and working) gets the same response! Can you advise please? Thanks
You may want to ensure there are no spaces or similar in front of the email you are attempting to use. If you’re trying to reset a password due to being locked out you would want to take a look at: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-reset-wordpress-admin-password-on-localhost/
Hello,
My browser crashed whilst I was attempting to change the URL of my site on wp-admin and now I’m unable to access the log in page or see the site.
When I type in the URL of the site, I get the error message: This site is currently undergoing maintenance, and will be back shortly.
When I type in the /wp-admin URL it shows me to a log in screen and I enter my details only for it to return the error message: This site is currently undergoing maintenance, and will be back shortly.
Is anyone able to help?
Thanks,
Jess
You would want to take a look at our tutorial for that error here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-briefly-unavailable-for-scheduled-maintenance-error-in-wordpress/
I’m being told I don’t have any wordpress sites.
Hi Cynthia,
You may have a website built with a different website builder. Try to find out which one and then search on how to migrate from that website builder to WordPress.
WordPress is hosting my blog. I’m now being told I don’t have any sites yet I logged in and wrote a post on October 3. When I use admin in my url I’m taken to a political site. I have my receipt of payment to wordpress but when I’m logged in there’s no record of a payment. I’m not sure how to fix this. Thank you for responding.
Hi Cynthia,
Please contact WordPress.com support. They would be able to help you out.
After editing and publishing my new blog hosted with Bluehost, the front end of my website still shows a coming soon page. I don’t know what else to do.
Hi Teboh,
Login to your Bluehost hosting account dashboard and then click on ‘My Sites’ in the left column. Take your mouse over to your site and then select Manage site. On the next scree, click on the Settings tab. Here you will find the option to turn off ‘Coming Soon Page On My Site’.
I have an inactive wordpress site (about a year) and I cannot log in to the admin panel. I’m trying to either change it and start using it again or closing it out.
My issue was that I couldn’t remember the password and when I tried to reset it it would accept none of my email addresses.
Can someone please help? I’ve been searching for the answer and can’t find anything about not having access through email.
Hi Kelly,
Seems like it is a WordPress.com website. In that case you may want to contact their support and they will be able to help you out.
I locked myself out by installing a re-captcha plug-in, enabling it for log-in screen and then logging myself out. Unfortunately my log-in screen is created by another plug in and they don’t seem to be compatible. The log-in screen does not show the recaptcha and then when I try to log in it says incorrect details. Any ideas?
Hello,
So people from my work asked me to update the website but the guy who made it is gone and they can’t reach him. So I made a new website but now we can’t bring down the old one. Is it possible to do so without having the login? Cause they own the business but didn’t do the website…
Hi Eliza,
You will need to connect to your hosting account dashboard. This is where the old website’s files are stored. You may contact the hosting company and ask them for help. There are online tools that you can use to find out where the old website is hosted.
I am in desperate need. I cant get back into my wordpress account and everywhere i go for my site it show the 404 file or directory not found
What do I do?!
Hi Emma,
Please see our guide on how to fix 404 errors in WordPress.
Is it possible to get locked out when I’ve tried to log in for too many times? I was creating a code for a modal type login and had to log in and out several times to check. Would that be one of the possible reason why I’ll be locked out?
Hi Eymiel,
By default, WordPress doesn’t stop users from attempting to login. You can try as many times as you like. However, you can use plugins like Limit Login Attempts to change this.
I work for a medical supply manufacturer. We had our site designed by a web development company. The relationship has ended. We were never given the admin user name and password. Is there anyway where we can get access to the admin features? The developer won’t respond to our calls or messages.
Hi Stephen,
If you have access to the web hosting account for the website then you can use that to recover WordPress password using phpMyAdmin. If you don’t have access to the hosting account, then you cannot access the website.
Hello, I just did the move / migration from local to online using all in one migration WP. The website is online, it works but urls dont work my website is still under construction – – – – I can no longer access to wordpress ! – – – – I know I have to use id and password I used working in local but because it was saved in my internet browser I didnt have to enter it each time and I completely lost / forget it ! ANd I dont think changing it on localhost/phpmyadmin/ can be a solution because the migration has been done (?) PLEASE help me to find a solution – save my life — the website is for a client – it’s an urgency. Thanks
Hi Karin,
You can still reset password by launching phpmyadmin on hosting account’s cpanel dashboard.
I just switched my website over from WordPress.com yesterday. Everything was working fine or so I thought. Today I tried to log into my site via the /wp-admin/ page, but it is telling me that my e-mail, username, and password are all invalid. I tried to reset the password, but it told me there was no account linked to the address or the username.
I KNOW I am using the right information. I have tried to login on my phone, through the app, and on my computer. The only way I can get to the dashboard is by going to BlueHost and clicking on “My Sites.” It doesn’t even give me the option to log into WordPress from there.
I am so frustrated. PLEASE HELP!
Hi Lindsay,
Please try our WordPress troubleshooting guide to find out what’s causing the issue and how to fix it.
I changed phone #’s so I cannot get back into my worpress account as everything they wanna send me is on my phone?!
Now what?
Word press has no email help?!
Hi Roberto,
You are probably using WordPress.com. Please see our guide on the difference between self hosted WordPress.org vs free WordPress.com blog.
WordPress.com has a support forum where you can reach out and explain your issue.
Did you manage to resolve this? I’m having the same problem and I don’t know what to do! I can’t find my back up codes and the verification messages aren’t coming through to my old phone!
I am not able to access website admin page (wp-admin) which is built on wordpress. it shows 404 not found when i typed mywbsite/wp-admin/. Please assist
Every time i wish to access my wordpress dashboard which is installed in a namecheap hosting whenever i put my user ID and password then this message appears : You have been locked out due to too many invalid login attempts. Can anyone give me a solution
Hi,
I have a weird issue with my wordpress account.
I logged out and now that I want to log in again it says that my username and email don’t exist in wordpress, what can I do about it?
Thank you.
Hi John,
Please see our guide on how to deactivate plugins when not able to access WordPress admin.
I am having a very weird issue.
I have dpwnloaded a plug in for my website which shows my website in under construction mode.
I kind of lost my password, and when i go to the lost password it redirects me to the under construction page.
Also I am using site ground hosting.
So i am completely blocked out i am not able to recover my wp dashboard
Hey Sumayya,
You can deactivate plugin using FTP.
I cannot access my blog nor login to wp panel, but when I use a different Internet connection it works. So how to solve this if it has something to do with a particular connetion?
Same happened to me. I can’t access wp-admin page from my intetnet connection but when I use other internet connection or VPN, it opens. Please give me a solution.
same with me… is related to the internet. with data is ok and other people can access. but i can access other wordpress accounts I have without problem… the issue is with one particular account
Hi
I’ve locked myself out of my site. I had it offline on a local host while I was building it. All was fine it was the day to upload and do a paypal sandbox text. I uploaded all files to my host server, all good. But when I went to my website it wasn’t there just the host screen. I watch some videos on YouTube to get advice and one said change the URL in your WordPress dashboard. So I did and now when I got to login to my WordPress site it says it’s not there. Any help would be most appreciated
Thanks
Joni
Hey when i log on to my WordPress website it takes me to my website instead of my dashboard and when i click on dashboard to edit my website it just refreshes the page
here i have a blog when i move to admin panel of my blog, after login , work properly then suddenly automatically my admin panel down and even blog also can’t access, but when i use another network its normally open and move to again admin panel, same problem issue…
and hosting admin panel also blocked at same time
i dont know what is this
Hello – I don’t know if you can help me. I had a personal site & blog with a domain hosted through godaddy. Some time passed and I apparently forgot to renew my domain subscription – and I lost my rights to this domain. (I can currently buy it back for $1500- yikes). In any case, I’m fine with changing my domain, but in the meantime I want to access my admin dashboard to access what I had on my wordpress page (pictures, blogs, content, etc). I can’t use the normal log-in as I no longer have the domain – is there a back door to access this?
Hi Ashlei,
If your hosting account on GoDaddy is still active, then you can download a backup of your WordPresss site. If you don’t know how to do that, then follow our guide on how to manually create a WordPress backup.
I do not know what the error code is: my website says: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘<' in /home/christoe/public_html/wp-includes/bookmark.php on line 26
I set up FTP, etc, but I'm not sure which one is line 26, and I do not know what the exact error is. I did not change the code in the first place. as I believe I was hacked. so I have no idea what is correct and what is incorrect code?
I used WP Clone plug-in to copy my site to a new domain so I’d have less work to do to start off but now whenever I try to get to the log-in page it says my IP has been blacklisted, please help!!!
In my WordPress site, I am not able to access the customize function. Each time I click on that it presents a blank screen. What should I do?
I cant get into my wordpress now. It keeps telling me to “enable cookies”. Well, I tried to enable cookies for my website name and for wordpress but it didnt really specify what address it needed to be enabled for but regardless it still gives me the error message. That was on Chrome. So I tried on safari and now it’s telling me my password is wrong when I know for a fact it’s not wrong because I just changed it due to it telling me my password was wrong before the “cookie” error. Im thinking that WordPress just wants to see me suffer..
I just activated the woo commerce site earlier today and it was giving me an internal server error every time I tried to do something so I deactivated it. I just reactivated it because I’m trying to set up my store on my site and the same thing happened only now I cannot log into my site at all I’m completely locked out all it says is internal server error and I can’t find a way to get in touch with anybody to fix it!! please help me somebody!!
Thank you! This is excellent information!
Hi,
I’ve followed all instructions relating to the above – many thanks so far!
But i’ve hit another wall… Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘$atts’ (T_VARIABLE), expecting ‘{‘ … on line 126.
Problem is, there is no code on that line at all. I’ve been on this for the last couple hours and can’t seem to crack it. I was playing around with the code before as it was bouncing me around to different lines of code where paste error syntax codes were but started again from the original ‘broken’ code and i’m left here.
Any help would be great!!
Thanks so much.
Hi there.
I made an error now I can’t log into my WP admin panel.
How my error happened:
When I was logged in to the Dashboard I went to Settings, General, and changed the email address in both the WordPress Address (URL) box & the Site Address (URL) box, then saved, then I causing me to lose access to my admin panel & get this message when I try to log in.:
“Error 404 – Not Found
The document you are looking for may have been removed or re-named. Please contact the web site owner for further assistance.”
When I FTP into my domain I don’t know what to change or how to change it.
Can you help me?
Hi Donna,
You can try this. Connect to your website using FTP and look for wp-config.php file. Download this file to your computer and open it in a text editor like Notepad.
Locate the line that says ‘/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */’
Just before this line add this code:
define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');
Replace example.com with your website’s address. First try with www. and if that doesn’t work try without www.
Save the file and upload it back to your website’s root folder using FTP.
Hopefully this will resolve your issue.
I have the same issues with Donna and followed your suggestions but unfortunately, it still doesn’t work. It still saying a not secure on the address bar and 404 error. Hoping for more suggestions. Please, please, really need your help.
Thanks a lot, really.
I apologize if this is an easy fix that I’m missing but I simply went to update WP and this error appeared, locking me out….
Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_raise_memory_limit() in /home/content/w/h/i/example.com/html/wp-admin/admin.php on line 141
It’s been so long since I originally installed WP, I don’t remember how to do any of this…..please HELP!
Hey Natalie,
You can try to manually update WordPress. This should correct any problems occurred during the update.
Hi, I locked out from my admin page.
I mean, I already change the admin url and cannot remember it.
How to change or check the admin url?
Maybe from phpmyadmin?
Thanks.
When visiting the admin url I just get a white screen that says ‘admin access disabled’
I’ve tried deleting the wp-login file and uploading one from a fresh copy of WP, I’ve tried disabling all plugins (by renaming the plugins file in cpanel), I’ve tried clearing all cache and cookies…. I’m all out of ideas!
Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Tan,
Please try tips in our WordPress troubleshooting guide. If that doesn’t help, then contact your WordPress hosting company they may be able to help.
I am having strange issues on some wordpress sites. I have around 70 of them.. but for some of them i can not open admin panel on my laptop. though all works fine on mobile.
I tried proxy tunnel software, and it opened..but on my normal connection the admin page redirects me to broken connection page. however, with same connection i can access wp-admin page using my mobile. any solution?
When I click on my admin access, I get a black screen with a picture of a gun and creepy music plays. How to I regain access to my site?
Please take a look at our beginner’s guide to fixing your hacked WordPress site.
My Color Magazine site will not let me change or ad widgets. When I go to “manage in customizer” I get this long error code:
Edit Add Google Analytics Stats
Google Analytics Stats
Fatal error: Uncaught exception ‘Google_AuthException’ with message ‘Error refreshing the OAuth2 token, ………….. Array) #4 /home/content/56/9312256/html in /home/content/56/9312256/html/wp-content/plugins/google-analyticator/google-api-php-client/src/auth/Google_OAuth2.php on line 288
Help, please. Thank you
Please contact your theme developer, they will be able to help you better.
You left out how to get in if the password is being sent to an email you no longer control…
Hi normally when ever i go online to my website, it is normally already logged in to wp-admin. A couple days go i tried to go onto it and it was logged out. So i try to log in and this was unsuccessful. I try logging in using wordpress..this also didnt work. I get this error – ‘Error, invalid response data’. What can i do to fix this problem?
Thank you in advance
No matter how I try to access my dashboard, I get a simple white page with the word “error” in the upper left hand corner. I’m seeing the error :locked out due to too many login attempts” but I haven’t logged into my account AT ALL in over a month.
iThemes seems to cause more trouble than offer any security, because the spam comments and constant “new user registrations” keep coming, but my legitimate access of my dashboard is denied.
NOW WHAT?!?! Thanks!
I had someone to build me a site. Well he did and messed me over on it. He set my privileges to certain things and really did a crappy job with my site. I can’t do anything to it or with it. He has administrator privileges and Won’t let me have them. Is there a way to take it over change passwords and have control of my site? I have paid him all I intend to which was an agreed upon amount. I just want a way to have full control of my site.
If you have access to the hosting account and control panel then you can add a new admin user via phpmyadmin. You can also add a new admin user via FTP. After that you can login to your WordPress site and delete his account.
Make sure you update all passwords for hosting, FTP, WordPress, etc.
I constantly have someone hacking into my site. They apply words into my content that leads to other sites selling cigarettes etc… I have had numerous different experts fixing it, but it never lasts. It is being hosted through Godaddy. I have also called them, but they keep trying to sell me more security. The experts I hired have added different security, but it doesn’t seem to last. My contact form doesn’t work either, when you fill it out it always says failed to send. I don’t know what else to do. Please help. This website is costing me a fortune.
Hey Brenda, we are going to publish our complete step by step WordPress security guide in a couple of days. Please subscribe to our blog or follow us on Twitter or Facebook so that you are notified when we publish it. It will help you learn how to secure WordPress like a professional.
Hi,
i messed up my code in the functions php and can’t access my site anymore. Sadly i was stupid enough not to save a copy of the original code. What shall i do? Any suggestions ? Being new to all this, im kind of desperate
Please see our WordPress troubleshooting guide for step by step instructions. You will need to edit your functions.php file using FTP or File Manager.