can't log into to dashboard as admin

Try 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.

Hi, thanks for your reply. I renamed the current theme to ‘default’ but that didn’t work. Was that the right thing to do? Would it be easier to delete my WordPress install and start again? If so, is there a particular way to delete it, or can I just log in via ftp and delete everything? Thanks

Rename that theme to anyname you want as esmi suggested as wordpress will than force to open twentyten theme.
The theme you installed must not be completable to wordpress 3.0.1

Rename your current theme’s folder to something like ‘my-theme-old’. Never use ‘default’.

yes, I’ve done that now but its still not working. I’m new to WordPress but know my way around webhosting and ftp, so this appears to me as an upgrade problem. Can I just go ahead and delete the whole WordPress install and start again, or is it not that simple?

If your site worked post-upgrade, then it’s unlikely to be an upgrade issue. Given that you tried to use an elderly (and probably out-dated) theme just before the site went down, it’s far more likely to be a theme problem. Do you have a copy of the twentyten theme in wp-content/themes?

yes, I have got the twentyten theme in the correct folder. I thought it may be an upgrade issue because my other WordPress install, which I haven’t upgraded yet, is running fine. But I’m still new to this and finding my way round. Is it possible to upload screenshots on here so I can show you what my server file structure looks like?

Update: I deleted the last theme I had activated via ftp and was able to log back in. The twentyten theme had been activated by default because “the active theme was broken”. So I activated another theme known to work with 3.0 and now I’m getting the blank screen problem again. This happened immediately on activating the new theme and now the login screen is blank again too. So maybe its not a theme problem afterall?

Go through the same process and rename that new theme. You could just simply have picked up a couple of broken themes.

Thanks again esmi. So what I now think is happening is that some files are being dropped when I ftp them, because this has now happened with non-WP files. What I don’t know is whether this is a problem with my ftp program (Flow for Mac) or my web host (Little Oak). Any thoughts on which is the likelier? I’ve not got a WP site up and running yet so I’m quite happy to ditch the host and start from scratch, or delete the install and start from scratch, i.e. whichever is best

I normaly always upload the zip file as is and extract it on server that I do not loose or corrupt any files while uploading.

Check if you can do that with your host.