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.
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.
I messed up the functions section and now the site is broken and apparently I can’t change the code in my WordPress admin. I also can’t access the site via the FTP program (it can’t connect me to the server) and I don’t know what to do.
You can also access your website using File Manager. It is a web based FTP program that you can access from your web hosting dashboard. Simply login to your hosting account and on the cPanel dashboard look for File Manager.
You can also contact your hosting provider to help you fix this issue, or send you FTP credentials.
i my problem is my website suddenly is not opening and its now showing password and a tab it was working properly till this afternoon and suddenly it was like that the site is asking for password not event letting me go to the wp-admin page. kindly help
Meanwhile you can try to deactivate all plugins using an FTP client.
Awwww… Great…..
Thank you…Thank you ….Thank you so much
Went to exactly same problem as you mentioned and overcome by following steps mentioned by you…
U R Great ….Thank you again
God Bless you
Hello there,
My problem is falls on this topic but I’m facing another problem when I try to login my admin panel dashboard. It shows simple Page Not Found error and shows redirection search page.
Please fix.
my dashboard url redirects me to WordPress.com pleas how do i solve it
I recently installed a plugin to a website I am currently designing for a client and now am locked out of the wp-admin area. I cannot be able to login to the site’s C-panel so that maybe I can delete the plugin. The error that shows up is:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function et_get_option() in /home/firetech/public_html/wp-content/plugins/DiviLogin/main.php on line 19
How do I get out of this.
You will need access to either cPanel or FTP to deactivate the plugin.
I seem to have a hacker trying to access my back end using the Admin account and they keep locking me out of my own site. Is there a way to reset this lockout since this seems to be happening quite often to my site. I try to block the IP addresses of the hackers once I get access back but low and behold they did it again. Locked out and can’t login as Admin.
Once I get back in I will prob create another user with all access so I am not completely locked out again but being locked out as Admin is getting quite frustrating. I think it is a plugin I installed that is setup to block the user if they fail to login correctly, too bad there is no way to assign an IP address to my Admin user since I have a static IP and only log in from the same internet connection when editing my site
Any ideas on what I should do? thanks!
Carl, first you need to find out how someone is able to regain access to your site. This means they have installed a backdoor, which allows them to come and go as they please.
Once you have found and fixed the backdoor, you can try these tips to protect WordPress admin area.
So I changed a code in functions.php and therefore an error occurred. My website isn’t loading anymore and I can’t log into the admin. I tried using FileZilla and followed the exact steps as you described. I was able to change the functions.php and removed the code. However, my website is still not working. I really don’t know what to do, hope you can help.
Do you see an error message when you visit your website?
Are you sure you fixed the correct functions.php file? Each WordPress theme installed on your site has a functions.php file.
Try switching to a default theme by renaming, /themes/ folder to /themes.old/ inside wp-content directory. Then create a new themes folder and then download Twenty Sixteen theme from WordPress.org. Unzip the theme and upload it to the new themes directory.
Hi, I managed to fix my website by replacing my functions.php in FileZilla by the functions.php from my theme which I found on the internet. Thank you for all the helpful information because otherwise I wouldn’t have known about FileZilla. I’m relieved that my website is fixed now!
Hello,
I tried to change the footer letter color in the code (imported the code and deleted it in 2 or 3 places). Now I can not access my admin or open the page. It is a HTTP ERROR 500! Please help, it is my first page on WordPress and I do not want to loose it! Thank you.
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-login.php on line 390
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-login.php on line 403
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 898
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 899
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 900
Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-content/themes/madar-lite/inc/customizer.php:392) in /home/windwapc/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1171
This is what I see in my screen when I click on view admin in other to access my dashboard Please someone should help me.
Seems like issue with a theme or plugin installed on your site. Try deactivating all plugin and switching to a default theme like Twenty Sixteen. This will help you figure out which plugin or your theme is causing the issue.
I have the same issue, however I cannot even log into my dashboard. I did go to my pluggable.php file and deleted all the spaces and extra lines but the problem still persists.
Hi Teresa,
Why you deleted the pluggable.php file? It is a core file and you are not supposed to delete it. Please download WordPress, extract it on your desktop, locate the file pluggable.php in the wp-includes folder. Use an FTP client to upload this fresh file back to your website.
We are assuming that you added some code to functions.php file which caused errors on your website. Please take a look at the steps mentioned in our WordPress troubleshooting guide for beginners for more detailed steps.
Hello, I`m in a right mess with my new site. A friend set it up for me to edit – which I did, BUT then I decided to change the URL as it had his name in it – and now I cannot get into it at all.
Would anyone have any idea how I can overcome this issue?
Many thanks in advance