So it sounds like you DO have access through your ISP (through the “web host’s file manager”).
First, if you have access to the control panel, are you certain you don’t have access to the old employee’s email? **If** it’s in your domain, you could either recreate his email account, or add a forwarder. Ex: Mail to [email protected] forwards to [email protected].
If not:
Wordpress plugins are all stored in the same directory /yourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/
There are several plugins designed to lock you out after a number of attempts. If you’re not seeing a directory called wordfence (/yourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/wordfence) it could be that you actually don’t have this plugin, and it’s actually a different plugin that’s causing the issue.
You CAN change your entire plugins directory folder name to (example) plugins.old and this would disable ALL plugins including any plugin that might be causing you to not log in. HOWEVER!! If you can’t remember your password, you’ll be in the same position plus all plugins are disabled – so if you’re using a plugin to take payments, for a contact form, etc., they will be disabled as well. You can’t re-enable them until you log in to your wordpress site and activate them again.
You could instead look in the plugins folder and rename individual folders to disable one plugin at a time. Example /yourdomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/backupwordpress.OLD. Just research each plugin folder name to see if one of them could be the culprit.
Finally, if you can’t remember your password, with access to the back end through your control panel, you should be able to reset your database password. (https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Resetting_Your_Password)
