Fatal error – locked out of dashboard!

Try:
– switching to the default theme by renaming your current theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes and adding “-old” to the end of the folder name using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or phpMyAdmin.

Wow that was fast! Thanks Esmi, will try these.
B

I tried the FTP route – renamed the plugin folder ‘plugins.hold’ and tried to login, no joy, same error message.

Then I uploaded Twenty Twelve back to the FTP, renamed the current theme with ‘-old’ at the end, and refreshed the site. The front end has twenty twelve (looking awful!!) but I still can’t access admin.

I went back and took ‘-old’ off the end of the correct theme, but it won’t go back now!

I’m not confident with php myadmin at all, don’t know where to begin with it…

Because the error refers to

public_html/wp-includes/update.php on line 176

would it be wise to copy the original file over the one on this site?

Hmm. Line 176 is

$translations = wp_get_installed_translations( ‘plugins’ );

How about if I deleted all the plugins – I would rather re-install and reconfigure them if it meant I could get into the admin panel.

Do you think this would work?

Thanks! x

You could try deleting all of your plugins via FTP. And you need a copy of the 2013 theme in wp-content/themes as that’s the current default theme.

Thanks again Esmi. A brilliant person sorted me out.

I’m not sure what the problem was yet but will update this thread when I know ??

And will leave Twenty Thirteen installed on sites in future!

Beth

Okay – it was because the site was running on an old version of WP, and when I upgraded to 3.7.1 it beggared everything up.

I have a bunch of old sites which I am just going through and some clients have not been keeping up with their updates – I want to tell them about security risks and remind them to keep on top of WP updates, but don’t want them all to go and do it and break their sites!!

I’ve read various bits of guidance on the forum but just want to check – when updating WordPress (esp when skipping versions) is this the right procedure:

Disable all plugins
Revert to the default theme
Update WP
Re-activate chosen theme
Activate plugins

Will I have to reconfigure the settings on any plugins and themes, or will they ‘remember’?

Thanks for all the help and advice so far, really appreciate it ??

Beth

The approach you outline above is fine but with the proviso that you should never update more than two major versions of WordPress at a time. This means that on sites running a version older than 3.5, you will need to carry out a series of smaller manual upgrades. See Upgrading_WordPress_Extended for the full details.

Obviously, you should also make a database backup before any upgrade – preferably after the theme change and plugin deactivations.

Will I have to reconfigure the settings on any plugins and themes, or will they ‘remember’?

They should all still be stored in the updated database.

Thanks Emsi!
Beth

I logged into WordPress to update my site https://stjohnsrichmond.org/

I was getting the following messages

Warning: include_once(/home/stjohns/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernize/include/plugin/custom-widget/contact-widget.php) [function.include-once]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/stjohns/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernize/functions.php on line 112

Warning: include_once() [function.include]: Failed opening ‘/home/stjohns/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernize/include/plugin/custom-widget/contact-widget.php’ for inclusion (include_path=’.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php’) in /home/stjohns/public_html/wp-content/themes/modernize/functions.php on line 112

I upgraded to 3.7.1 and apparently that was a bad idea because now I am having the same problem. I cant get to the dashboard anymore. I still get the error when I go to my site and now have the additional error

Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_get_installed_translations() in /home/stjohns/public_html/wp-includes/update.php on line 32

Does anyone have any suggestions how I can fix? I am in a pickle now.