For your security, your account has been locked- Too many login attempts

By the way I have the wordpress app to manage the site from my iPad, I also have this thing called password box to keep all my passwords etc secure on my imac.I don’t know if this is relevant… I had this fleeting thought: what if the apps are trying to login multiple times? Even so they would succeed as the correct password is stored within them.

Have you checked whether the ip address corresponds to one you were using?

From my attempt to track it, it appears to be a Dutch IP.

Probably best you don’t answer the next question. but are you using the default admin username of admin?
If so then you will get locked out by spammers using the default username on the login page, I regularly see login attempts on my site from a user called “admin” despite not having a user by that name, if your username is something like Engelbert then the chances are that the spammy logins under the default username of “admin” wont effect you at all

I have received these everyday but for some reason I could still login…

What is likely happening is that someone or some bot is trying to login and gets shut out by your site.

Usually after a preset period a person is allowed to log in again. There are security plugins where you can set this time period.

Tomight I have come back home after just a few hours out and found that I can no longer access my admin account.

Likely because that time period has not expired yet.

I have no idea what causes this (hacking or other), and how to resolve this. How can I ensure I have access to my admin account when I need it?

As nigelt74 says, you are likely using admin for your username, and hackers and autobots are crawling the net looking for WP sites that use admin. Then they try and guess your password. They keep trying until they are locked out.

Change your username.

Furthermore, under Users > Your profile, create a nickname and use it for “Display name publicly as”

Otherwise, if you create a post, and your theme shows it, it will say “Posted by” with your username and then the bad guys have your username again.

Hope this helps ??

Hello nigelt74, wpfan1000,

Thank you for the feedback.

Have you checked whether the ip address corresponds to one you were using?

From my attempt to track it, it appears to be a Dutch IP.

This is not mine, currently I am in the UK. – How did you know it is Dutch?

As nigelt74 says, you are likely using admin for your username, and hackers and autobots are crawling the net looking for WP sites that use admin. Then they try and guess your password. They keep trying until they are locked out.

Change your username.

Furthermore, under Users > Your profile, create a nickname and use it for “Display name publicly as”

Otherwise, if you create a post, and your theme shows it, it will say “Posted by” with your username and then the bad guys have your username again.

I do not use admin – but I understand your suggestion. I was able to login right and went to change my username vs what is displayed but it says you cannot change your username – is that correct? If so what can I do?

Thank you very much.

A couple of minutes with my coffee and I realised I could simply change it direct in my MySql. All is good again.

/thanks a lot – I’ll check over the next few days if I still get this issue or if it has resolved, then post here to let you know, this way future users can know if it was a permanent fix.

Its amazing what a coffee can do for a person ??
Glad you got it sorted out.