Updated Elegant Theme and now can't log in

Through Godaddy I backed up my previous theme, downloaded the new .zip of the updated theme and went to my sight to log in. the S2Member login page is there fine and when I enter my password the screen flickers and starts over blank. There is no message that I have entered an incorrect password…just blank fields.

I then tried to request a new password and the procedure went fine, emailing me a link to reset. When I entered in the new password, same thing. Screen flickers and login panes are blank again.

Being the admin…this is a problem.

If you can offer a suggestion, I’ll be very appreciative.

Thank you.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.

Hi Rick,

That’s interesting. Sometimes this error occurs when you mix www. and without. What might be happening is that if you went to, say, http://example.com/wp-admin/, and you have your site set up to use http://www.example.com/, your site is redirecting you to the non-www site on login, where you are not logged in, and therefore sending you back to your login screen over and over.

Check out this article: Knowledge Base » Don't mix www and without

To test before going through the .htaccess tricks, try going straight to http://yoursite.com/wp-login.php and logging in.

Thank you Bruce,

I tried the http://yoursite.com/wp-login.php (http://subdomain.whydoidate.com/wp-login.php) with the same result. We have a temp page at http://www.whydoidate.com while I work on the theme over at subdomain.whydoidate.com. I’ve always logged into the S2 page at subdomain.whydoidate.com/wp-login.php.

Reading the article you provided was very helpful. Thanks.

Do you have any other idea what I might try?

Rick

Hi Rick,

Is subdomain.whydoiddate.com a site connected to whydoidate.com through WordPress Multisite?

If so, can you log into the WordPress Dashboard by going to Network Admin -> Sites -> Dashboard ?

No Sir,

It’s a Godaddy thing. I just got off the phone with them and they said all theme information is under subdomain.whydoidate.com just as it was before I began the update procedure.

Rick

Hi Rick,

To test I just created a test user on your account “s2test”, and it registers that I have no yet activated my account, and when there is no password. This leads me to believe that this is most likely an issue with your cookies, or because you are using a subdomain site setup.

If you have FTP access to your site, I recommend changing the folder name of /wp-content/plugins/s2member so that it will temporarily disable s2Member. If you still cannot log in, contact GoDaddy and see if they can fix your cookies for your subdomain.

EDIT: Just received activation email. Can sign in with regular account. Perhaps this is a problem with a corrupted admin account? Try following these instructions to create a new admin account through mySQL and see if you can log in that way:

http://www.dnawebagency.com/how-to-add-an-admin-user-to-the-wordpress-database

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Bruce.

I went to Godaddy (since my theme runs on their copy of WordPress) to make your revisions and they said that their version of WP may not be compatible with my theme which was just released 5 days ago. I’ve gone back to Elegant themes to download a copy that was available after the copy I had been using and the version I downloaded today. This “2.9” is out there so I’ll give it a go to see if the login issue remains.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again,

Rick

Hi Bruce, I have an interim update…

Still waiting on Godaddy so nothing new there.

I tried to change the password through the login screen and it seemed to work, sending confirmation emails to me.
But when I tried to login with the new password, still a flicker and same result.

Not sure if that means anything, but I thought I’d mention it.

Thanks,

Rick

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the update.

We’ll await GoDaddy’s response.

Hi Bruce,

Godaddy walked me through the process (specifically listed below). I added a new user (Rick) and password and then went in and listed the privileges (’10’ as specified). I can login and now we get through the login screen but only end up on the generic home page (subdomain.whydoidate.com) without any admin (or subscriber) capabilities.

As specified in the instructions, I enter through subdomain.whydoidate.com/wp-admin. It then forwards me to the S2 Login screen (as I believe is appropriate).

I don’t see anywhere to attach a graphic so I’ll email you a screen print of the recorded alterations from the SQL pages.

FYI: The login I had for “Connie” still flickers and remains on the Login screen.

Whatcha think?

Thanks,

Rick

Specific instructions you provided:
We will need to insert a row into the database with our admin users information. Click on the “Insert” tab in order to bring up the phpMyAdmin insert form. Insert the following information:

user_login – this is the username you want to use to access WordPress
user_pass – this is the password you want to use to access WordPress (be sure to select MD5 from the phpMyAdmin Function menu – WordPress stores passwords with MD5 encryption)
user_nicename – put whatever you would like to refer to yourself as in here (not your username)
user_email – this is the email account associated with this user
user_url – the url to your website like – http://www.dnawebagency.com
user_registered – when was this user registered – just select a date with the date selector
user_activation_key – you can leave this blank
user_status – leave this set to 0
display_name – usually I set this to whatever my user_nicename is

Ok now that you have got all of that information entered you will need to hit the “Go” button at the bottom of the phpMyAdmin window. You should be redirected to a page that shows the results of your query. If there are no errors continue with editing the wp_usermeta table.
Editing the wp_usermeta table

So now that we have inserted our user we will need to give it privileges to access the WordPress Admin seciton. This is done through the wp_usermeta table. You will need to know the id of the user you just created. If you don’t know the id now would be a good time to check the wp_users table for it. We will need to insert two rows into the wp_usermeta table, wp_capabilities and wp_user_level. Here are the steps you will need to follow to give your user privileges.

Click on the wp_usermeta table to bring up the entries.
Click on the “Insert” tab to insert a new row.
Fill in the following information
umeta_id – leave this blank it is automatically generated
user_id – this is the id of the user you created in the previous steps
meta_key – for this step insert wp_capabilities
meta_value – insert exactly this – a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;}
Insert another row with this information
umeta_id – leave this blank it is automatically generated
user_id – this is the id of the user you created in the previous steps
meta_key – for this step insert wp_user_level
meta_value – insert 10
Click the “Go” button in phpMyAdmin to insert the row.

Now you should be able to login to your wp-admin page with the username and password you specified for this user. After logged in I would visit the Users section within WordPress, click edit on the user I just added, and click the Update Profile button at the bottom of the screen. This will allow WordPress to go through and add some more information and “clean up” the user we just added.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the update.

This part:

Click on the wp_usermeta table to bring up the entries.
Click on the “Insert” tab to insert a new row.
Fill in the following information
umeta_id – leave this blank it is automatically generated
user_id – this is the id of the user you created in the previous steps
meta_key – for this step insert wp_capabilities
meta_value – insert exactly this – a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;}
Insert another row with this information
umeta_id – leave this blank it is automatically generated
user_id – this is the id of the user you created in the previous steps
meta_key – for this step insert wp_user_level
meta_value – insert 10
Click the “Go” button in phpMyAdmin to insert the row.

Should give administrative privileges to your admin account, if you did it correctly. Ensure that you did that correctly and you should have another admin account. Then you can see if it fixed your problem.

Hi Bruce,

Before (in line 7) I inserted the “-” before the a:1: . Should the ” – ” be there too?

– a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;}

Hi Rick,

No, that’s not supposed to be there. just a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;}

Thank you Sir,

I’ve gone in several times first making the alterations to the original user and then I tried by creating new users. The login still brings me to the home page with a Log in / Register option at the top left of the screen.

I did notice something I hadn’t seen before, on the wp_user page there is a warning in yellow with a red border that says, “The following indexes appear to be equal and one of them should be removed: user_login, user_login_key”

I’ve made a screen print of each step (and the yellow warning) if you would like to see them.

I also called GoDaddy about the yellow warning and they said that they cannot help with that. They also told me that their system only has the capability of using one admin and that all other users will have a lower level of access. He also said that he doesn’t have the experience needed and that whoever I’m dealing with (i.e. you) knows much more than he does….

In addition to the account I created, it does show an “admin” user but I don’t have that password information.

Rick

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.

Quick note Bruce…

Can you check to see if your log in allows you to alter a post I’ve inserted into a page?

For instance: http://subdomain.whydoidate.com/testing-to-see-if-page-will-follow-peeve-category

I created a new user (level 2) to see if I could alter a post as I did before the upgrade. It sends me to the same home page (as the admin account we’re trying to establish) with the Log in / Register option at the top. I cannot edit a post after registering a new user…even if I log out and sign in again.

FYI…

Rick

They also told me that their system only has the capability of using one admin and that all other users will have a lower level of access.

This is likely the problem. Your user’s permissions must have been changed by GoDaddy when you created it.

In addition to the account I created, it does show an “admin” user but I don’t have that password information.

You should be able to reset your password for admin. Try going to /wp-login.php?action=lostpassword and see if that works for you.

—

If you cannot get this up and running soon, you will most likely need to reinstall WordPress, while moving Posts/Pages with you so that you don’t lose your data. It sounds like something got corrupted with your Database.

You should be able to export the wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables via PHPMyAdmin and then Import them when you reinstall WordPress. Personally, I would recommend *not* using the GoDaddy WordPress installer, and just copying the files over via FTP, if it comes down to reinstalling WordPress.

WAIT…i found Godaddy instructions to do this….I’ll be right back….R

Hi Bruce,

Calling Godaddy we changed the password and the Log in doesn’t recognize the username as verified (by godaddy).

They said that they don’t know how to manually install WordPress.

Can you tell me where to find instructions….?

Rick

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  Rick Hardman.

Gee what a wild ride, thank you Bruce so much for your help.

I’ve reinstalled WordPress, then I reinstalled the backed up database files. So now I can log in, alter posts; the S2 seems to working.

There’s one last thing that needs addressed…

In the upper left of the screen I have the WhyDoIDate term. Before all this started I could toggle to WordPress to make alternations but now the second option is not there. Now it takes me to the home page.

I went back into Godaddy and deleted the admin user so the new user I installed with the meta_value – ’10’ should be working as an administrator. GoDaddy confirms this is correct.

So if you can help me toggle to WordPress, life should be great again.

Rick

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Rick Hardman.
• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Rick Hardman.

Update Monday morning:

Hi Bruce,

I went to GoDaddy asking what is going on. They sent a link to sign directly into WordPress which returns a screen saying that I don’t have permissions to go any further. Then they disconnected the S2-Pro plugin files and I tried to sign into WordPress directly and received the same message.

They tell me that S2 has changed the user profile in the data base and moved line 0 so now to find and decipher the permissions will be very difficult to do.

We’re way over my head at this point so they recommend I shut everything down and start my site over from the beginning.

He said that most security programs have a back door so I don’t know if that can help in this situation…

Can you tell me what your view of the situation is?

Thanks,

Rick

In the upper left of the screen I have the WhyDoIDate term. Before all this started I could toggle to WordPress to make alternations but now the second option is not there. Now it takes me to the home page.

Rick, could you explain what you mean by this? A screenshot would also help.

They tell me that S2 has changed the user profile in the data base and moved line 0 so now to find and decipher the permissions will be very difficult to do.

s2Member doesn’t change the users, especially the admin. s2Member, when changing the user level or custom capabilities, does change the WP role and capabilities for users other than the admin. s2Member doesn’t edit the rows in the “users” database table.

Hi Cristian,

After everything that has gone on with Godaddy blaming S2, I did some inquiries and found that no WP user I asked recommended them (for WP).

So, I’ve signed on with hostgator, reloaded WordPress and I’m starting from scratch with my theme. I think this approach will save time and potential problems in the future.

I appreciate your and Bruce’s help very much.

Rick

Cool, sounds like a good idea. I hope all goes well then. Let us know if you have more questions. :)