Cannot login to admin

Its not clear from your message. You say “The site loads and works” so why would anything need repairing?

“Cannot login to admin” means I cant access the dashboard.

Looking for clear precise instruction for restoring the admin so I can again access my dashboard. Relatively new to WP and wish to avoid trial and error.

OK you installed a plugin and now can’t access the admin. The most common fix is to FTP into the server and delete or rename the folder of the plugin in question. That should allow the site to recover.

Beyond that you need to work out if the plugin is….
a) just faulty
b) conflicting with another plugin
c) conflicting with your server.

b) is usually the best place to start as you can work that out by just disabling all the plugins, then enabling the new one and then re-enabling each plugin in turn to see if they conflict.

Tried deleting, got an error.
FTP a new copy, still white screen, meaning no dashboard and no login screen

Seems unusual that its
a) Just faulty, popular plugin with a lot of installations
b) conflicts are always possible, but in this case we dont have another caching program, the most likely source of conflict
c) server was just upgraded with the latest software

Hoping to just clear this out and reset the admin

I can’t login either. When I’ve gone to the login screen, my browser remembers the ID and password. The information is still in the browser but it won’t take. What happens when someone forgets this information? Where does a person go to fix it. I hadn’t worked on the site all day but I have been looking it it.

Hope someone can help.

>>>, still white screen,

https://www.colinmcnulty.com/blog/2008/07/08/solution-to-wordpress-blank-screen-of-death/

https://www.fouroclockproject.com/2009/how-i-fought-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death-and-won/

https://venetsian.com/wordpress-2-8-4-shows-blankwhite-scren-of-death/

https://www.jtpratt.com/how-to-fix-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death/

Tried deleting, got an error.
FTP a new copy, still white screen, meaning no dashboard and no login screen

Just ignoring error messages and giving up isn’t going to solve the problem. If uploading a new copy hasn’t fixed things then you need to delete or rename. So what exactly was the error message – it could very well be related to your overall problem.

b) conflicts are always possible, but in this case we dont have another caching program, the most likely source of conflict

Simply dismissing the possibility also isn’t helping to solve the issue. It doesn’t have to be another cache plugin that is conflicting.

c) server was just upgraded with the latest software

Then maybe they screwed up some element of the upgrade

Hoping to just clear this out and reset the admin

Hoping isn’t a very good way to debug a problem so we are back to my original post. You need to delete or rename the plugin folder. If you get an error doing that then you need to tell us exactly what it is.

After attempting to delete it and getting the error I renamed the plugin (w3-total-cache) to disable it and received the following error when requesting the admin:

“W3 Total Cache Error: some files appear to be missing or out of place. Please re-install plugin or remove /wp-content/advanced-cache.php.”

While there may be a conflict with another plugin this problem occurred when activating w3-total-cache, which I only went ahead with because it seemed to be a well-received plugin.

Since this started upon hitting activate, I assume it may have partially completed the original activation which impacted code in another file, but I have no clue what the file is other than advanced-cache.php which I cant find.

Everything was working fine on the new server until attempting this plugin activation.

Rather than going through a laborious task turning off numerous plugins, what is the safest way to restore my system back to its condition before I attempted to activate this plugin?

I have yet to look through the prior post links completely, is there one that you would recommend?

ask at their excellent forum

https://www.ads-software.com/tags/w3-total-cache

I did 12 hours ago, no replies.

I see you use this program W3-total-cache. Do you think this is a W3 issue?

This site is in development so I would like to just reinstall from the backup I made last week. But before I do anything I wanted to understand what conditions are causing the problem which could also exist in the backup. Further I need to know what to do if this happens when the site is live and backup restore is not so easy.

>>>I did 12 hours ago, no replies.

Unfortunately during that time most of USA was asleep so you are too hurried.

There is guidance in its FAQ as well.

– – –

https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-to-delete-uninstall-w3-total-cache-wordpress-plugin.html

remove db.php, advanced-cache.php, w3tc/ and w3-..-setttings.php from wp-content and plugins/w3-total-cache/

Thats so much for sticking with me, I will check that out as soon as I can, but have to step away for several hours.