Hi @engine44
When users are blocked it is usually because they are not using our recommended settings and have set them too strictly.
Without knowing what led you to be being blocked I can only guess why you have been blocked so read these instructions very carefully as different types of blocks have different resolutions.
Please provide a link to an image sharing service with a full-screen screenshot of the block page that you are seeing including the two timestamps at the bottom of the page. This is necessary to be able to see the type of block and also the timestamps of the block.
If the timestamps at the bottom of the block page don’t closely match then you may have a broken caching mechanism and you are seeing a cached copy of a block page. Caching plugins and server caching mechanisms should not cache our block pages but they do sometimes if they are broken or not configured properly.
Also if you haven’t set Wordfence to detect IP addresses correctly then Wordfence can see hackers and everyone else, including you, as coming from the same IP address. If a hacker gets blocked then so does everyone else for the duration of that block, or until the IP address changes. Further instructions for IP detection are below at the bottom of this reply.
If you don’t receive the lockout email check that you are using the correct email registered to your WordPress admin account and also check your spam folder for the email. If an email doesn’t arrive then that suggests that WordPress is unable to reliably send mail and you can ask your hosting provider if they can see why WordPress is unable to send all mail. Please note that Wordfence doesn’t send the email, we use the WordPress mail function to send the email.
Alternatively, to gain access to your site immediately, you can rename the Wordfence plugin via FTP/SSH or your hosting control panel file manager. If you are not sure what to do your hosting provider may be happy to help.
Find the Wordfence directory in the file path below and rename the Wordfence directory as below:
~/wp-content/plugins/wordfence-disabled
You will now be able to log in to WordPress.
You then need to rename the Wordfence directory again to reactivate Wordfence as below:
~/wp-content/plugins/wordfence
At this point you won’t see Wordfence in the WordPress menu. Click the WordPress Dashboard menu item and you will then see the Wordfence main menu item appear. However, you may need to reactivate Wordfence on the WordPress Plugins page first.
You can then open the Blocking tab on the Firewall page to look for a block for your IP address and the reason given. If there are a lot of blocks then you can search for your IP address in the list of blocks. You can find your IP address here (note that this detection is not 100% accurate on cellular phone network connections):
https://whatismyipaddress.com/
Depending on the reason given for the lockout you can adjust that setting so that it doesn’t happen again. Our recommended settings are in the link below:
https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/brute-force/
Please note your block won’t be present if you successfully used the email tool to regain access as the lockout will have been removed from the list of blocks on the Blocking page.
For correct IP detection, you can find your IP address here (note that this detection is not 100% accurate on cellular phone network connections):
?https://whatismyipaddress.com/
In the How does Wordfence get IPs subsection of the General Wordfence Options section on the All Options page make sure that you see the same IP address on the line Your IP with this setting. If you don’t then you will need to configure Wordfence to detect IP addresses correctly if you are using a CDN or any other type of proxy server that your hosting infrastructure uses.
https://www.wordfence.com/help/dashboard/options/#get-ips
