wp-login.php simply refreshes instead of logging into admin page

  • I’ve seen other threads where this problem has been noted – and I’ve tried all the solutions I can find, including those listed in Login Trouble. I am at a loss.

    The issue: My site has been working fine – but recently I attempted logging into the admin page (which had also been working fine for weeks), and the login screen just refreshes and clears the fields. There is no warning about the username or password being wrong. No warnings of any kind. The page simply refreshes as though I never entered my credentials.

    I want to run something past the community to see if it raises any red flags: In another thread, someone had posted a link to their admin page, and I tested it to see if it would at least return the “bad username or password” error. It did. he URL in the browser’s address bar looked like this:

    https://www.theirsite.com/blog/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https://www.theirsite.com/blog/wp-admin/

    Now, MY login page has a different address configuration. I’m hoping this says something about the problem I’m experiencing. When I load https://www.mysite.com/site/wp-admin – the address loads in the browser like this:

    https://www.mysite.com/site/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.mysite.com%252Fsite%252Fwp-admin%252F

    Does anyone know why the redirect URL is loading with codes for slashes and colons rather than the actual characters themselves?

    . . . I don’t know if that really solves my problem, of course, because if I go directly to https://www.mysite.com/site/wp-login.php – the address doesn’t change on load, and neither does my problem. The page still just refreshes when I try to login.

    I hope this is somewhat clear. . . . Thanks for your help!

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Just a quick update: Using the GoDaddy File Manager, I’ve rolled my site back to before I noticed any login trouble, and even that hasn’t solved the issue.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    That redirect isn’t wrong at all. That’s what it’s supposed to do. You went to the admin page, it said ‘Hey, he’s not logged in, let’s send him to wp-login to log in and off we go.’

    I suspect it’s a cookie issue.

    Flush all your browser cookies and go back in and log in. Yes, log in. You’ve been logged out. Cookies/logins expire you know.

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Thanks Ipstenu –

    Yes, I know that cookies and logins expire. And flushing the cache and cookies is part of the Login Trouble documentation that I’ve been through already. That doesn’t help this situation, regardless of whether I’m using Firefox, Safari or Chrome. (I’m on a mac.)

    I also understand the purpose of the redirect – I never thought the redirection itself was indicative of a problem. My concern is with the URL it’s using to redirect. Instead of using slashes and colons the way I’ve observed in other people’s login redirects – it appears to be double encoding them. . . . I wondered if that might be a sign that I have a database problem or something.

    I’m just looking for any inconsistencies in hopes that they will draw me closer to a solution.

    So from your response – it sounds like you don’t see any red flags as a result of the double encoding of characters in the redirect URL?

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    So from your response – it sounds like you don’t see any red flags as a result of the double encoding of characters in the redirect URL?

    Nope. I see that all the time. You may be using a different version than the other guy.

    Back to the issue:

    The issue: My site has been working fine – but recently I attempted logging into the admin page (which had also been working fine for weeks), and the login screen just refreshes and clears the fields. There is no warning about the username or password being wrong. No warnings of any kind. The page simply refreshes as though I never entered my credentials.

    I know you said you did ‘everything’ on the login help page, but y’know, we have to ask just to make sure ??

    What browser are you using?

    Have you tried another browser? (Chrome, Firefox, etc).

    Have you upgraded any computer software (like IE) recently?

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Thanks Ipstenu.

    I’m on a mac – so no IE here. I have the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari installed. All 3 show the same issue. I’m running WordPress 2.9.1 hosted on a GoDaddy linux server running PHP5. I haven’t done any software updates in the week or two leading up to the problem.

    I was hoping the issue might’ve been caused while trying to get the Google Sitemap Generator plugin working. I had been modifying some file permissions during that time – so when renaming the plugins folder didn’t solve anything, I decided to restore the site to a state prior to installing that plugin.

    Even after doing that, I’m stuck in limbo. Same issues persist.

    I’ve contacted GoDaddy, and the best they could offer is restoring back to a previous file state. I wish that had worked!

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    Can you try the link for lost password? See if that emails to you?

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Yeah, that was the first thing I tried when I first discovered that I couldn’t log in. The lost password dialogue comes up – and then when I enter the info and click “Get New Password”, the screen refreshes without any confirmation text – and no email arrives. (Not in my inbox nor in my spam.)

    I’ve since changed my password via MySQL, concerned that the Lost Password link might have actually changed it, regardless of not sending the email.

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Is everyone as stumped as I am, here? Believe me, I would love nothing more than for someone to solve my problem with a simple, “YOU IDIOT – you forgot to ________.”

    Yep. Right about now, that would make my day. ??

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    SOLVED!

    I found another thread where MichaelH recommended several steps for a similar problem, the 7th of which was “temporarily rename .htaccess if possible“. I did – and I can suddenly log into the admin page!

    . . . I had been using .htaccess for 301 redirects. I’ve posted its contents below in case anyone with the knowledge might be able to identify the offending code. I would love to know what the deal is.

    Thanks for your willingness to help, Ipstenu.

    My .htaccess code:

    RewriteEngine On
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mysite.com
rewriteRule ^(.*) https://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect 301 /pages/about_us.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=2
Redirect 301 /pages/contact_us.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/decals.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=92
Redirect 301 /pages/decoration.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=92
Redirect 301 /pages/directions.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=38
Redirect 301 /pages/etching.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=92
Redirect 301 /pages/faq.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=21
Redirect 301 /pages/gallery.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=3
Redirect 301 /pages/glassware.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=35
Redirect 301 /pages/jobs.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=25
Redirect 301 /pages/news.html https://www.mysite.com
Redirect 301 /pages/press_releases.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=18
Redirect 301 /pages/send_artwork.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=15
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/bottling.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/collectors.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/crush.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/crush2009.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/dessert.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/facelift.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/giftpacks.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/holiday2009.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/lookgood.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/march.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/onechance.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/pts.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/reserve.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/resolutions.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/spring.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/stemware.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/stemware2009.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/stimulus.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/value.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/vday.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/wineclub.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/with_style.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391
Redirect 301 /pages/landing/wvpts.html https://www.mysite.com/?page_id=391

# BEGIN WordPress

# END WordPress

    I don’t understand why this would work? I don’t have a .htaccess file with my server, but I’m having the same redirection problem as you showed.

    Any other way to solve the admin login page problem?

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    There seem to be a significant number of people experiencing the same problem triggered by different issues. Search the forums for “login failure” or “admin login refresh” and see if any of the resulting solutions work for you.

    I’d love to know why this .htaccess thing worked in my case. . . . It’s unfortunate that WordPress now seems so fragile. Best of luck, Esok.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    That’s not a weird .htaccess, though the fact that your WordPress section is BLANK caught my eye. I have similar things in my .htaccess file and no problems.

    Thread Starter james5325

    (@james5325)

    Apparently it has something to do with this code: 

    RewriteEngine On
rewritecond %{http_host} ^mysite.com
rewriteRule ^(.*) https://www.mysite.com/$1 [R=301,L]

    It’s the part that manages to lock me out of the admin side of WordPress. Could it be that my wordpress files are in a directory separate from my site root URL?

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    ?????? Advisor and Activist

    That’s weird. I have this and no problems:

    # Getting rid of the WWW in front
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mysite.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://mysite.com/$1 [L,R=301]

    My blog is in mysite.com/blog, but you access it from mysite.com directly.

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
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