Replacing corrupted WordPress files

Also…

Obviously before I do anything else I need to do a backup.

Is WP-DBManager a good choice for that task?

By the way, I can EDIT existing posts.

Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts, so if you have access to your admin panel, try deactivating all plugins. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, try manually resetting your plugins. If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Default theme (WordPress 1.5 – 2.9.2) or the Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via FTP or SFTP, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the Default theme (WordPress 1.5 – 2.9.2) or the Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via FTP or SFTP and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your FTP or SFTP client to view invisible files.

If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

Well, I don’t know what to make of this.

I decided to tackle plug-ins first because that seemed to be the easiest path to take. I had a lot of deactivated plug-ins, so the first thing I did was delete all those. Then I bulk deactivated all of the remaining plug-ins.

Much to my surprise (because I really didn’t think a plug-in could be causing the problem) I was now able to add new posts!

So then I activated all the plug-ins again in batches of three or four at a time, testing after each activation.

Eventually all plug-ins were activated again and I could still add new posts. In other words, all the same plug-ins activated again and the problem has disappeared.

What do you make of that?

Eventually all plug-ins were activated again and I could still add new posts. In other words, all the same plug-ins activated again and the problem has disappeared.

What do you make of that?

It sounds like a plugin was stuck. Much light old-fashioned flashlights that refuse to turn on, sometimes you just have to hit it really hard.

Looks like I spoke too soon, as I just discovered an unpleasant side-effect.

I have WordPress configured to show Categories in one of the two sidebars.

It shows a list of category names just as I would expect, and each category name has a number after it in brackets indicating the number of posts for that category.

EXAMPLE: I have one category that shows in the list as “WordPress (10)”, and its link is https://blogname.com/blog/category/wordpress/.

PROBLEM: Clicking that category (or any other) in the list opens a new blog page which is headed with the category name (WordPress in this example), but there is no list of relevant posts/articles displayed on the page.

The exact same thing applies to the “Popular Tags” list (Tag Cloud), also in a sidebar.

Both lists are formed by the built-in Widgets.

Any idea what’s gone wrong and how to fix it?

Incidentally, I’ve just had a look with my FTP client and there is no /wordPress folder at https://blogname.com/blog/category/wordpress/.

Try deactivating all plugins. If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the Default theme (WordPress 1.5 – 2.9.2) or the Twenty Ten theme (WordPress 3.0 and higher) to rule-out a theme-specific issue.

If neither of those help, we’ll need to see an actual link to the problem for further investigation.

Incidentally, I’ve just had a look with my FTP client and there is no /wordPress folder at https://blogname.com/blog/category/wordpress/.

It’s a virtual directory created by the permalink structure. You should also notice that you don’t have a /category/ directory either. ??

You were right — a plug-in again.

This time the culprit was Search Unleashed.

However forcing a manual re-index in the settings of Search Unleashed solved the problem.

Again, I spoke too soon…

I have just discovered another undesirable side-effect of the Search Unleashed plug-in.

Clicking on a link in the list of Categories – e.g. WordPress (10) – returns a page that has more Post entries on it than the 10 that should be displayed.

This happens even after running a re-index in Search Unleashed.

Disable the plug-in and the correct Posts are shown for the Category that was clicked on.

Looks like I’ll be deleting this one.