2FA doesn’t work and can’t access my admin dashboard after wordpress update

Hi @the_managuer, thanks for messaging us about the issue you’re seeing.

There was an emergency WordPress update due to an erroneous release of an alpha version on Friday 30th October 2020, I’m not sure if the subsequent update to remedy this has now fixed your site, but I am able to visit your blog without trouble at the moment. Here is some more information on this release: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/10/emergency-wp-5-5-3-release/

We do not recommend “deactivating”/removing/clearing .htaccess as this could cause major issues for visitors to your site and break general access, even for yourself.

If the 2FA code is still not being accepted for your account, please follow these steps:

• Please use FTP/SFTP — or any file manager your web host provides via their administration panel.
• Look inside the /wp-content/plugins/ directory and rename the wordfence directory to wordfence.bak. This will deactivate Wordfence and allow you to login without the 2FA code.
• Once you have logged in to your WordPress admin you can name the folder back to wordfence again.
• Go to your user profile and add 2FA back to your account, making sure to download the backup codes in case of problems in the future.

Thanks,

Peter.

Hi Peter, Thanks for your message,
As I wrote, I did everything, deactivating plugins. Nothing works. I am like in a loop.
After deactivating Wordfence, my username and password redirect me on the very same login page. Still doesn’t work. Even with deactivating everything this is still the same scenario. I tried everything I could but nothing could let me in. I am desperate unfortunately. I still don’t know which update I have on the site.
Let me know whether you could help me further.
Thanks.
Gilles

Hi @the_managuer, thanks for letting me know.

I was just seeing database errors when attempting to view your /wp-login page which suggests that the username/password/database name is incorrect in your WordPress wp-config.php. The blog page was also not visible but now is loading also.

This seems like it could be linked to your database full problems you were seeing, and I also can’t see any console errors for Javascript problems that would cause your login page to loop in the way you describe.

It would be ideal if you could look at your PHP & database error log files, and paste here any timestamped errors that you see that seem to relate to the problems you are having. If you wish and are able to gain access to your WordPress dashboard (perhaps renaming wordfence folder is necessary again for this part), you could send us a diagnostic report. You can send this to wftest @ wordfence . com. The link to do so at the top of the Wordfence Tools > Diagnostics page. Then click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

Note: For the fastest response time, please make sure and add any information or questions directly to this topic and not the email address above unless asked.

Thanks,

Peter.

Hi Peter,
Thanks, yes, the database sometimes appears in error, but once the page is reloaded, it is OK. I’ve just checked my wp-config and all looks OK. I wouldn’t be able to get to my admin dashboard unfortunately. However, I’ve got a file /amylee-fr/wp-content/debug.log which is huge of 78 GO, but I don’t know whether this is the one you were talking about. Please could you just precise the details about the PHP & database error log files ?
Thanks a lot for your help, much appreciated.
Gilles

Hi Peter,
We found the issue. Something in the update wordpress or anything else has disconnected my admin account from the database it seems ?? wp-config file had incorrect information that I didn’t see unfortunately. We reinitialised this user on phpadmin and gave a new password. Permissions are now OK. As I could understand, this could have many roots : mySQL server blocked permissions for whatever reasons, wp-config corrupted, or one plugin did autoupdate itself and made a mistake. It is now under 5.5.3, and was before accessing still on 5.5.2. and nothing worked, such as backups since the wordpress update and so on. Hope it gives you guys some explanations or some reasons to study in the last wordpress development.
I am just relieved. Thanks for you help !
Gilles