Locked out, nothing works.

  • Resolved Sumukha

    (@sumukha)


    3 years, 7 months ago

    Hello,
    I am experiencing a strange issue at one of my sites where I am immediately being locked out, showing a 503 Wordfence screen. Login was easy two weeks ago, the only thing that changed is that my ISP assigned another IP address to me.
    While the lockout email arrives, the unlocking doesn’t happen.
    Even stranger is that trying from a different IP address (VPN) doesn’t help.
    My next steps so far were renaming the Wordfence folder to disable WF. Result is a Unknown username screen. So I went to phpadmin and checked – username and email are correct.
    I completely reinstalled WP and restored a All-in-One backup, just to run into the same issue.

    Has anybody experienced this and have a suggestion?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Plugin Support WFAdam

    (@wfadam)

    Hello @sumukha and thanks for reaching out to us!

    It sounds like the site’s IP detection could be off. A diagnostic will help me see what is going on.

    To get access back to your site:

    • Please use FTP/SFTP — or any file manager your web host provides via their administration panel.
    • Look inside the /wp-content/plugins/ directory and rename the wordfence directory to wordfence.bak.
    • Once you have logged in to your WordPress admin you can name the folder back to wordfence again.
    • Refresh your dashboard and you should be able to see Wordfence Active again. If not, go to the Plugins page and Activate it.

    Once you get logged in, can you send a diagnostic report to wftest @ wordfence . com? You can find the link to do so at the top of the Wordfence Tools > Diagnostics page. Then click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.

    Thanks again!

    Thread Starter Sumukha

    (@sumukha)

    Hi Adam,
    Thanks for posting.
    However, I already had renamed the Wordfence folder which resulted in an Unknown username screen.
    What seemed to have happened was a corrupted user table in the database. I recalled another admin login which worked although not bein listed in the db (yes, I double checked if I was looking at the correct db).
    Will send you the report anyway.

    Thanks!

    Plugin Support WFAdam

    (@wfadam)

    Sorry for the late reply! I was out a bit last week.

    I would recommend reinstalling Wordfence to repopulate the tables correctly.

    You can backup your Wordfence settings via the Export option. Navigate to Wordfence > Tools > Import/Export Options and click Export. You can also take note of the current Whitelisted URLs you have in Wordfence > Firewall > All Firewall Options > Whitelisted URLs as these are NOT included in the Import/Export, and will be lost during the re-install.
    Here is what is exported: https://www.wordfence.com/help/tools/import-export/
    During the export, you will be given a long string of text. Keep this safe, you’ll need it in a few minutes.

    After that, enable the option to Delete Wordfence tables and data on deactivation in All Options > General Wordfence Options. You will want to remember to disable this after you reinstall Wordfence again.

    After you enable that option, you can deactivate Wordfence from the Plugins area of your site, then delete it. Next, from the plugins area, search for and re-install Wordfence like normal.

    It will be like setting Wordfence up for the first time. You will need to enter an email address, and then go into Tools > Import/Export Options and paste that string of text into the Import Wordfence Options field and click the button there.

    The firewall will be in Learning Mode by default for 7 days. I would recommend switching this to Enabled and Protected as soon as possible.

    Let me know how it goes!

    Thanks again!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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