dashboard area broken after upgrade to 4.0

This is running on FreeBSD 9.3 using Apache 2.2.27, PHP 5.4.32, and MariaDB 5.5.38

I get similar or the dashboard area is so very slow to load.

This isn’t slow to load.. It’s broken. 500 error means Apache is getting an unexpected condition from PHP

Fixed this by falling back to 3.92 and disabling auto-updates on this and all other WP installations.

Think I’ll wait a few months before trying 4.0 again

If you feel like trying 4.0 again, we can probably help, but there are few things to try, and we will need more info.

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. 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 Fourteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via FTP or SFTP, 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 FTP or SFTP and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your FTP or SFTP client to view invisible files.

I tried several things.. Among them, I renamed the active theme which did no good.. I then moved all plugins to a side directory. The only plugin left behind was Akismet. Still no joy.

I also downloaded the 4.0 zip file and unzipped it over the existing install.

I would really like to figure this out as I have about a dozen installs of WordPress spread across 3 hosting sites. Since this happened, I also disabled all auto-update functions so that nothing mistakenly gets updated.

The only recommendation that you have that might still be an issue is the .htaccess. I may try that tonight if I have time.

Thanks, please let us know how the .htaccess change goes.

Also, you could try upgrading to 4.0 manually: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended

Don’t just unzip over the install, delete first and then replace your copies of everything except the wp-config.php file and the /wp-content/ directory with fresh copies from the download, as overwriting can be problematic.

To clarify, when it was broken, I would try to sign in and the admin page or dashboard (whatever it’s called) would just be a blank page.

Yep, that’s definitely a PHP error. See the reply just above for one more idea. ??

MacManX, tried what you suggested and got the same thing. the .htaccess is very basic:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ – [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

I also tried the URL you recommended and it did not work either I still get the 500 error and the session error in the Apache error logs.

Did you do a complete manual upgrade of WordPress following the instructions at https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended ?

Did you delete the old files first or just overwrite them?

I followed the instructions on the page. I deleted the files first and then copied the new files over.

Is the site publicly accessible? If so, would you mind sharing the URL?

Also, at /wp-content/themes/ is there a directory titled twentyfourteen? If not, please upload a new copy downloaded from https://www.ads-software.com/themes/twentyfourteen and try renaming the directory of your currently active theme (just the active theme’s directory, not the themes directory itself).

I had the same issue with an auto-upgrade to 4.0, couldn’t login to control panel, front-end was still working fine.

I fixed it via this thread

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/cant-login-after-400-update?replies=19

i had to copy the latest wp-settings.php from github, seems that this wasn’t updated by the upgrade, not sure why?

MacManX, It is publicly available. The domain is https://www.sewgaelic.com.
Before trying the update I deactivated all plugins and set the theme to 2014. The update appears to go, then I get taken back to the login screen which is not normally how an update goes. When I try to log back in, there is no admin page at all. Just a blank page.

Basil Brooks here has a suggestion for me, so I’m going to restore from backup again and try his recommendation which does appear to be slightly related. I’ll post here after everything is done.