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?

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.

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

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. ??

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.

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!

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?

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.

Hi Glenara –

I’m struggling with a site has been working fine (wordpress 2.9.1) until recently I’ve been unable to log into the admin page. I’ll enter my username and password, and upon clicking enter the page refreshes and the fields simply clear themselves. No warning messages. I’ve tried everything I can find in these forums, and I’ve had no luck. I hoped maybe the hack you detailed above might work – but it hasn’t seemed to change anything for me. I realize, of course, that it was intended for 2.8.6 installs – so I figured it might not apply to my situation.

Just in case though, here’s what I’ve done. I found case ‘logout’ and pasted the following just above the wp_safe_redirect line:

if ( isset($_COOKIE[TEST_COOKIE]) ) {
  if($_COOKIE[TEST_COOKIE] == "set")  { //LOGGED_IN_COOKIE
  setcookie(TEST_COOKIE, ' ', time() - 31536000, SITECOOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN);
  exit('<script type="text/javascript">window.location.assign("'.$redirect_to.'");</script>');
  }
}

Then, I found case ‘login’ and added this code just above the wp_safe_redirect line:

if ( isset($_COOKIE[TEST_COOKIE]) ) {
  if($_COOKIE[TEST_COOKIE] != "set")  {
    setcookie(TEST_COOKIE, 'set', 0, COOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN);
    exit('<script type="text/javascript">window.location.assign("'.$redirect_to.'");</script>');
  }
}

I re-uploaded the page, cleared my browsers cookies and cache, went to the login screen and . . . nothing changed. After entering my login info, the page simply refreshes and clears the fields.

I’m at a loss here. Any other thoughts?

Many thanks.