Is it possible to deinstall a multisite and then reinstall it with the same URL?

Yes, and you don’t have to do anything to Multisite.

1) Delete all the CORE wp files

2) Make a list of your plugins and themes and delete them

3) Change your passwords on the server (cpanel, SQL etc)

4) Scan the files that are left for hacks and backdoors

5) Reinstall core WP and your themes and plugins

Done.

Oh, it sounds easy to do. However, may I ask what you mean by core WP files? Is it all the files in wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes?

Thanks

NOT wp-content. wp-content is where your UPLOADS live. You delete that and you’ll cry.

core WP means anything that’s included in a clean download of WP. Not sure what that means? Download and upzip WP on your computer and take a look ??

Yes, I’ll definitely do that, I’ve teared way too much of my hair to do something stupid and become even more miserable that I already am!

But the thing is, I don’t know if the hackers have infected the uploads (I’ve read somewhere that they could insert re-direction into pictures, things like that) and I kept all my photos and articles in files that I have in a USB-drive, so I wouldn’t mind uploading them again. At least, I’ll know that they don’t have bad stuff in them…

Infecting the IMAGES is hard. Hackers generally don’t do it.

Putting in .htaccess files and php files in the uploads folder is EASY. Look for those. You should never have php files in uploads.

Ah ok, thanks for letting me know, I was worried that they could do such a thing. I’ll do just as you say. Thanks!

Hi Ipstenu,

I did everything you said, and I still have the same issue. I need to access the wp_users through cPanel to put the passwords back before I can log in, because another one is already there.

I even created a new (super-)admin so that I could get rid of everything past, and not only I couldn’t delete the former super-admin but now I have 2 bogus passwords that look like this:

-$P$Bc1j8e4yZEzzE0peiXYwzdVSk6OrhV1
-$P$s/tQaylXleZy8O0r95HsO6KLCdOT0

It’s driving me insane ! And that’s why I initially thought of binning everything and starting from scratch, but with my URL, though.
What shoud I do? (And how one can suppress a super-admin?)

Thanks!

Dear Lord! Out of curiosity, I googled the $p$ part and I just saw that it was (but is it?) a WordPress-generated hash password.
If it’s the case, why on earth does this happen and how can I get rid of that?

The good news (if it is indeed a WP hash password) is that hackers are not messing with me.

WordPress is hard sometimes! ??

I need to access the wp_users through cPanel to put the passwords back before I can log in, because another one is already there.

Woah woah woah.

No you don’t need to do this.

At least, not through the DB.

Yes, you should change login passwords on WP, but that just means log in and change the password. Can’t get in? We have a whole big doc: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Resetting_Your_Password

Now I’m confused…
I change the password through phpMyAdmin as explained on the 4 bullet point :

All the tables in your database will appear. If not, click Structure.
Look for wp_users.
Click on the icon for browse.
Locate your Username under user_login
Click edit (may look like a pencil icon in some versions of phpMyAdmin)

Your user_id will be shown, click on Edit
Next to the user_pass is a long list of numbers and letters.
Select and delete these and type in your new password.
Type in the password you want to use. Just type it in normally, but remember, it is case-sensitive.
In this example, the new password will be ‘rabbitseatcarrots’
Once you have done that, click the dropdown menu indicated, and select MD5 from the menu.

Check that your password is actually correct, and that MD5 is in the box.

Do you recommand another method?

Ha, I realise that I might not have been clear. When my site was hacked back in November, I was advised to change the login and password through phpMyAdmin following the steps as described in the link you added to your message. That’s how I got my site back.

Now that every now and then those hash password appear, I use the same method to reset my password. Unfortunately, it lasts until I close the phpMyAdmin page. When I open it again, a new password is there.

But if there’s a better and permanent way to change the password once and for all, I’d be more than happy to learn to do it. ??

If your password KEEPS changing in the DB, you need to hire someone to clean the site out, because you have something majorly wrong.

Oh, that’s bad news :(. And this brings me to my first question: is it possible to bin everything and start a new multisite with the same URL ?

Of course.

Delete all the data from the server (files and the DB). Start over.

Ah great, thanks ! My biggest fear was that I might lose the possibility to use the same URL. I have a lot of work ahead of me but at least, there’s a way out of this mess.

Many thanks for your help, Istenu!