Admin role changed without my okay

  • The person who set up my organisation’s website, of which I’m meant to be the volunteer Administrator, was recently contracted to manage conference registrations via the website.

    Without notice or permission, they made themself the webmaster, changed the theme and added plugins (inSPYR).

    Their contract is ended and they are overseas. I keep getting “insufficient permission” messages and can no longer access the control panel etc. I think this has to do with the theme selected by this person.

    My organisation pays for the WP site and wants me to be its Administrator. How can we achieve this when my permissions have been removed without consultation?

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

  • Hi bronwynangelawhite.

    My organisation pays for the WP site

    Can you post a link to the site? Where is it hosted?

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    www.spirit-and-faith.com

    Your site doesn’t appear to be using WordPress. What theme are you using?

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    No idea, because I didn’t make the change! Hang on, at the bottom of the homepage it says:
    Genesis Child (in)SPYR Theme by Genesis Developer: SPYR Media

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    Sorry, I pasted the wrong link: progressivespirituality.co.nz

    You might try changing the admin user account password using phpMyAdmin through your host. Here are a couple of references:
    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Login_Trouble#Edit_Users_Table
    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Resetting_Your_Password#Through_phpMyAdmin

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    Edit Users Table
    Access your site’s phpMyAdmin and edit the database carefully.
    ? Open the WordPress database.

    How???

    Thank you bdbrown but I can’t understand the jargon and tech stuff

    The second link has images and additional details.

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    How do I know if I have phpMyAdmin access to my database, or do I need to download it separately?

    It would be included by your host as part of your hosting account, usually in the account admin like cPanel or Plesk.

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    When I log in, this is how the page appears: https://progressivespirituality.co.nz/wp-admin/

    See, I have no access to cPanel or Plesk.

    BTW When I login to my personal WP site, I get this: https://bronz99.wordpress.com/wp-admin/ with access to all the settings. I used to be able to access these on the site I volunteer for.

    Your personal site is on wordpress.com but that’s a similiar login to what you would see on a self-hosted WordPress site. The logon prompt at progressivespirituality.co.nz/ is not the default WP logon. It’s either been customized or, more likely, it’s a logon being generated by a security plugin installed on that site.

    Access to phpMyAdmin is not through your WP login; it’s through your web host account which is wherever you are hosting progressivespirituality.co.nz/.

    Thread Starter bronwynangelawhite

    (@bronwynangelawhite)

    Okay, thank you so much for your advice and patience. I’d hoped there’d be a workaround, but we’re going to have to tackle the issue another way. (I suspect it’s is still being hosted by our overseas site setter-upper; will have to check with our treasurer re who’s being paid for hosting.)
    Again, much thanks!

    You’re welcome. One other thing you might consider is, when you get access to the hosting account, use the cPanel File Manager to check the /wp-content/plugins directory. If there are plugins installed, either rename all the plugin folders to something like /plugin-old, or just rename the entire /plugins folder. This will disable all plugins. In the /wp-content/themes folder rename any themes that are not default WP themes; i.e. not “twenty…”. This will disable any third-party themes and force your site to use a default WP theme. That may get you back to a normal WP logon screen but you’ll still need the admin account credentials to log on.

    Hope you’re able to get it resolved.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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