Clicked “update” for WP and now can’t access dashboard, plugins or anything.

  • Hi all,
    I have v 4.7 listed but don’t know if the update took or not so not sure what version it’s technically running.
    Hope someone can help and let me mention from the top I’m not up on html and all the coding so sending me off to do that type thing won’t help, I have done a number of WP sites but don’t know anything about the behind the scenes stuff which is one of the reasons I use WP.
    I signed into one of my WP sites, saw it said update WP and so I clicked “update” and it just sat there. Eventually it kicked me to a page that says this:
    “The together4earth.one page isn’t working
    together4earth.one is currently unable to handle this request.
    HTTP ERROR 500”
    I get sent to that page if I click to go to the dashboard, the plugins or anything else so I can’t disable any plugins or do anything.
    I signed out and signed back in and it takes me right to the page listed above.
    I only have a few plugins installed but can’t get to them to give the exact names. One is a facebook video embedder thing, another is a contact form and then there’s a security/firewall plugin “ithemes security”.
    The theme is by SiteGround and it worked fine before I went to update and when signed out the site is as it was (as far as i can tell) before I tried to update.
    When I sign in it goes to that error page but I can go to the url address bar and put in the site address and it goes to the site where it’s obvious I’m signed in because I have that bar up top saying “customize” and “new” and shows to update the few plugins and says “security” (for the security plugin) but clicking on any of those goes to the error page BUT if I click on where it says “security” it does go to where on the left of the screen is the list of dashboard, posts, media, etc so it’s farther in than I can get any other way but clicking on any of those including drop downs like “discussion” or “reading” or whatever leads to that darn error page, so I see no way in at all.
    I’ve never run across anything this bad, in the past there may be some issue and I disable plugins or change themes and eventually I’m good but I can’t even get in to try that and I am really, really hoping someone doesn’t say “go into the this or that file” because I wouldn’t know how. My host offers WP as an “easy-app” and I just turn that on for whatever site, set up password for it, go in, update and start from there, so I never mess with files on my host.
    Any help is appreciated, I have a lot I came to add and would like to get it online asap.
    Thanks in advance.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your admin panel, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

    If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

    If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP client to view invisible files.

    If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that specific time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

    Thread Starter eeooth

    (@eeooth)

    Thanks James, I’ll try this one step at a time but seriously doubt I’ll have any luck but will try.

    Is there any undo on the WP version by any chance? Since it was fine before if I could just click and undo then I’d be happy with that. If there isn’t an undo it sure would be handy.

    Thanks again and wish me luck.

    Thread Starter eeooth

    (@eeooth)

    Ok, just tried the first thing and as expected found that proverbial brick wall pretty quick.

    1st problem was my host is apparently unconcerned with people having to know which WP install is for which site as they just name them by numbers… which happen to be out of order of when I started the WP for that site and once in each one you have to click around to find out what it was, but anyway I went to do this:

    “Use phpMyAdmin to deactivate all plugins.

    In the table wp_options, under the option_name column (field) find the active_plugins row
    Change the option_value field to: a:0:{}”

    So I’ll break that into pieces and show where I got stuck. my actions are in italics…

    “Use phpMyAdmin to deactivate all plugins.

    I got signed in and accessed phpMyAdmin ok

    In the table wp_options,

    found that

    under the option_name column (field)

    found that

    find the active_plugins row

    there isn’t one I can find anywhere so I can’t do the next step.

    Change the option_value field to: a:0:{}”

    Is there anywhere in the phpMyAdmin I can just undo the WP update?

    Thanks in advance.

    Thread Starter eeooth

    (@eeooth)

    Wait, I found it, had to click “browse” and then wander through the pages. Let me see what happens so anyone seeing this don’t bother wasting your time till I check this out. Thanks.

    Thread Starter eeooth

    (@eeooth)

    Ok, looks like the culprit is the Contact Form by BestWebSoft
    I’ll fiddle around and make sure it’s set and then close this as solved in a day or two when I’m sure it’s set. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to share.
    Thanks again James.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    I recommend reporting the issue at https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/contact-form-plugin so the plugin’s developers and support community can help you with this.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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