Can't access admin area of site

Have you reviewed this: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/troubleshooting-wordpress-36-master-list

Also, check error logs on your server for a more specific error message. If you need help locating them, ask your hosting provider to help you with that.

Thanks Tara… have done most of that… except trying a manual install *again*. The first one went badly wrong for some reason (I’ve done it on other sites and it worked fine). I can do this but am scared I’ll make it worse. The site is at least visible publicly now…

I can chase the error logs though I’m not sure how helpful the hosts will be. This isn’t on our own server.

Every single link in the admin area defaults to https://”mysite”.co.uk/wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F and sends the error page…

I *can* log in now and see dashboard bits over public-facing site. Just can’t get behind it.

Navigate via FTP to your installation. Check to see if the upgrade.php file is there. If not, download WordPress 3.6 from https://www.www.ads-software.com. Unzip the download and navigate to the wp-admin folder. Locate the upgrade.php file and FTP it to your installation. Somehow the in-app update process download was corrupted and missed the required upgrade.php which the redirect points to after the update. Good luck!

Already did it. The file was actually there originally too but I uploaded it again from a fresh WP download, just in case. Still didn’t make any difference ??
Thanks for the suggestion though ??

You may want to contact your hosting provider as well. Due to recent brute force issue they may have placed some safegurds that prevent your access to the dashboard.

Yeah I read about that. I’ll send the hosting folks that link. I’ve had them on the issue for the past 24 hrs but they can’t/won’t go any further (‘it’s a WP issue’). They say:
“From what I can see the installation was not completed successfully or a recent update or plugin installation is causing it.

My best advise is perform a fresh install of the WordPress application.”

After saying:

“this relates to a coding issue within your WordPress installation.”

Have you attempted ALL these troubleshooting steps:

■flushing any caching plugins you might be running, as well as server and/or browser caches.
■deactivating all plugins (yes, all) to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s). If you can’t get into your admin dashboard, try resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin (read “How to deactivate all plugins when you can’t log in to wp-admin” if you need help). Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems. Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder. The easiest way is to rename that folder to mu-plugins-old
■switching to the Twenty Twelve theme to rule out any theme-specific problems. If you can’t log in to change themes, you can remove the theme folders via FTP so the only one is twentytwelve. That will force your site to use it.
■manually upgrading. When all else fails, download a fresh copy of the latest.zip file of 3.6 (top right on this page) to your computer, and use that to copy up. You may need to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders on your server. Read the Manual Update directions first.

– not running any caching plugins on this site.. how can I flush server cache?
– have deactivated plugins
– have not switched to twenty twelve yet. It is a live client site and since I can’t access the backend I don’t want to apply a new theme that i can’t then replace again…?
– manual upgrade – did this once. Am going to have another go just to see… maybe I did something wrong?

have not switched to twenty twelve yet. It is a live client site and since I can’t access the backend

You don’t need to access the dashboard.

Please read the instructions again in my previous reply. It says:
“If you can’t log in to change themes, you can remove the theme folders via FTP so the only one is twentytwelve. That will force your site to use it.”

Yes I did read them but I meant about switching it back to it’s original theme. If I apply twenty twelve and it doesn’t fix the issue, how can I put the original theme back?

Same way you would switch to the Twenty Twelve theme

Oh ok. I will try a manual reinstall via FTP first and then look at the theme. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks ??

A really careful manual upgrade, following the ‘extended instructions’ (not the brief ones) sorted this issue – hurrah! Thanks for your help and support Tara.

You are welcome. ??