Fatal error: cannot create references …user.php

I think it goes pear shaped here:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'new' (T_NEW) in /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-content/themes/magazine-basic/loop.php on line 30

Change your theme to twentyseventeen. If the errors go away, then the issue is with the theme. If so, I recommend asking at https://www.ads-software.com/support/theme/magazine-basic#new-post so the theme’s developers and support community can help you with this. I note you’re using a very out-of-date version of the theme.

It also appears that you’re using a very, very out of date version of WordPress. If the twentyseventeen theme is not installed, try whatever twenty* theme you have.

Given how out of date things are, you also need to consider that your site might have been hacked — and the hack broke it.

Yeah, some of my sites have been neglected for a while. Updating the site was my project for today. But how do I update it if I can’t get into the wp-admin?

Try renaming the theme’s directory in wp-content/themes to force WP to fall back to a default theme. That may let you login.

Nope. And it won’t open the page (non-wp-admin) now either.

If I delete all the files and reinstall WP, can I connect to and use the old DB?

>> If I delete all the files and reinstall WP, can I connect to and use the old DB?<<

We’re not there yet.

Rename things back to what they were.

Make a backup of your site (and database). You should be able to do this from your hosting control panel.

When that’s done and safely downloaded, do a manual WordPress update, then upload the current version of the theme by downloading it from www.ads-software.com, unzippping locally, and replacing the theme you currently have on the site.

Will do. Can’t do it now. Will return with results later. Many thanks.

I see the instructions say to deactivate plugins. Since I can’t access the site admin, can I ignore that or is there some workaround I should do? Thanks.

You can skip that.

I did the manual upgrade, following the instructions on the site you indicated. I’m still getting this error message (which I think is the same that I was getting before the manual upgrade):

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function apply_filters() in /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-includes/load.php:316 Stack trace: #0 /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-settings.php(61): wp_debug_mode() #1 /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-config.php(77): require_once(‘/webroot/e/r/er…’) #2 /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-load.php(29): require_once(‘/webroot/e/r/er…’) #3 /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-admin/admin.php(31): require_once(‘/webroot/e/r/er…’) #4 /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-admin/index.php(10): require_once(‘/webroot/e/r/er…’) #5 {main} thrown in /webroot/e/r/erics001/blog/www/wp-includes/load.php on line 316

I’ve cleared my browser history (Safari) and I deleted the magazine-basic theme. The problems seemed to start when I upgraded PHP at my hosted site per the host’s requirement, from 5.3 to 7.2.

in www/wp-includes/load.php, line 316 is just a commented-out line.

Are all your plugins up to date?

I tried deleting all the plugins and uploading just the ones in the new WP source, but that didn’t change anything.

It sure seems to me that your WP installation farkled.

Try this:

In the site root, delete all .php files *except* wp-config.php and the directories wp-admin and wp-includes.

Download a fresh copy of WordPress and unzip locally.

Upload the result to replace the files you just deleted.

What do I do with wp-content? Delete all the php files in that directory?

I’ve been asked to find out if you have any “must use” plugins. Do you have a directory “wp-contents/mu-plugins”? If so, what’s in there (and what happens if you delete the files)?