Can't get into Dashboard

Kelpie, what did you do right before the dashboard went kablooie? Did you install a new plugin, or change the theme?

The first thing I would suggest is to go to the site using FTP. Open the wp-content/plugins/ folder. Rename every single plugin (you can just put an x or a 1 or something after the name: e.g., rename fantasticplugin.php to fantasticplugin1.php ). Then see if you can get back into the dashboard. If you can, then one of the plugins is causing a problem. You can change the names back, one at a time: change a plugin name back to the original name, then try to open the dashboard again. If that works, change another, and repeat. When you can’t get back to the dashboard you’ve found the problem plugin. Delete it.

If all the plugins work, then try the same thing with your theme — rename it and see if you can get back into the dashboard.

If neither of those work, post again and we’ll try something else. ??

Hello, I’m also a keymaster for the same site Kelpie is using. We’re completely ignorant to computer programming and my knowledge consists of google walkthru’s and old 90s-style HTML coding.

It’s safe to say Kelpie won’t have any idea on what you’re describing, because I certainly don’t either.

Pretend you’re talking to a 5 year old who’s never seen a computer. We can’t access ANY feature of dashboard – ALL of our links up top don’t work. The only thing that does is the “W” for the wordpress homepage.

The site owner is a programmer, but he’s MIA at the moment.

Oh, the last thing to happen to the site were the updates on the widgets, so it could be what you’re describing.

I’ll google what you’ve suggested for explanations. We had been trying to figure out how to get our moderation plugins to work in the forums, so perhaps it was that…

edit:

I replaced the www with ftp and tried to access it that way. My login did not work – do you need to be the site owner to access this?

sorry if our questions (err, MY questions) seem ignorant…

A link would help identify what’s going on with your site, or at least an error message if you can provide one.

you got it!

Here’s the error message:

Server error

The website encountered an error while retrieving https://www.prettythin.com/wp-admin/. It may be down for maintenance or configured incorrectly.

Here are some suggestions:
Reload this webpage later.

HTTP Error 500 (Internal Server Error): An unexpected condition was encountered while the server was attempting to fulfill the request.

Have you tried what Kate Newbill suggested:

– resetting the plugins folder by using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.

– switching to the default theme by renaming your current theme’s folder in wp-content/themes using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.

sorry, like I mentioned above, Kelpie and I have no clue about computer programming. our site owner, who is a programmer, is MIA and we haven’t been able to reach him for quite some time, so we’re trying to resolve this as best we can.

could you explain the process you’ve outlined in the simplest terms possible?

This could also be a more general problem with your server, rather than anything to do with WordPress. First Ask your hosting provider to review their web server’s logs and tell you if/what the error messages are.

Kelpie and I don’t know who the host is for the site. We are literally in the dark on almost everything except the community activity itself….*sigh* lesson learned. Our forum is going amok with moderation issues and we’re doing things manually at the moment.

I think it’s bluehost: https://www.whoishostingthis.com/prettythin.com

Do you have any passwords and usernames for the site’s ftp account or website’s hosting control panel (cPanel)?

I’m havind the exact same problem with my blog. I’ve been running it for more than a yeaer with no problem. Now I can login, but see nothing in the admin area. Nothing has changed since last week when everythying was fine!