Lost site. Install again? How to reduce data size?

  • I have two questions. I still cannot access my WordPress site that is hosted by a third party. Both the external site and the admin side asks me to install WordPress. If I follow this and re download WordPress will it work? Will it allow me to access my site? Or does it not recognize me as a user with a current website at all?

    I have been advised by my host that I need to reduce my disk usage to below the 1GB mark. I have no understanding of what that means. Can someone please walk me through that on the admin side? Can I do this without “reinstalling” WordPress?

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Typically, if you are asked to reduce your disk usage and you aren’t specifically uploading things like images, movies, or other large files, your installation has been compromised. This might not be the case and you could have a page with some faulty code that is generating a massive number of log file entries, but typically WordPress deals with those in a more direct manner.

    If you are being asked to install WordPress when you try and go to your Admin page, there is definitely a problem with your installation. You should probably contact the hosting company (if they provide software-level support), or perhaps proceed with a reinstallation; assuming you have a backup of your data, of course. If not you’d likely want to utilize FTP or SFTP to download a copy of your site.

    Unfortunately, it is had to give an exact answer in a case like this. These suggestions are based on what I would do personally. Please proceed with caution.

    Thread Starter harrietmagpie

    (@harrietmagpie)

    Thank you for the advice @seanperryman — Can you please explain how to “utilize FTP or SFTP to download a copy of my site”? I apologize as I am not experienced with using FTP to manage my site; I have always relied on access via WordPress admin.

    Do you have access to Cpanel?

    That is where I was headed. If you do I believe there is a Backup feature which will create a backup of your server or web space and download it to your computer. You’ll want to make sure and get a backup copy of the database as well, if prompted.

    If you do not you would need to consult with your web host to get credentials to log into your FTP/SFTP site using something like the FileZilla client (https://filezilla-project.org).

    Once you’ve logged into FTP, you can drag your “public_html” (or similarly named) folder to your local machine. This will not get a copy of your database, however, you may need to consult with your web host to get a copy of that. From there you can reinstall and start rebuilding.

    Here is an article that talks about rebuilding a WordPress site from a cPanel backup: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-how-to-restore-wordpress-from-backup/

    Thread Starter harrietmagpie

    (@harrietmagpie)

    @seanperryman @luckychingi thank you for the help and advice. Now, when I go to check out my site now, it does not ask me to install wordpress. Instead, this message appears:

    Fatal error: Cannot redeclare get_language_attributes() (previously declared in /home/content/18/5452818/html/wp-includes/general-template.php:3149) in /home/content/18/5452818/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-ban/wp-ban.php on line 244

    Can either of you translate this to English for me?

    Try to disable the wp-ban plugin, if this helps, contact the plugin developer.

    Looks like the WP-BAN plugin is causing that issue. If you do have cPanel or FTP access you can access the site and remove (or move) the directory

    /home/content/18/5452818/html/wp-content/plugins/wp-ban/

    That should get you back in the game.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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