nunovo

I double checked in the sense that I went through each of the steps outlined on the /wp-admin/options-writing.php page of the blog concerned. Then did it all again with a different account – which failed as well. Then did it again on a wordpress-hosted blog – which was successful.

The page you’ve pointed to is more complex, but I will work through it and hopefully find the missing item that way.

I wish it did!

Unlike rbr451, I haven’t set up a parallel account like that.
Every post I’ve sent just sits on my ISP server until I open up the webmail client and delete it.

Fixed.
Deleted the wp-admin folder again and uploaded again.
Dashboard fine now.

So in answer to my own earlier question about importing older data: I left the existing SQL data in place and just copied WP installation files to the working directory.

Well, that didn’t work…
The installation is now at 2.8.4, and the external view is still fine, but the dashboard still looks like this.

Next step looks to be deleting the entire installation and starting over.

Okay. I think I can proceed successfully.
I tried using the automatic upgrade to go from 2.x to 2.8, and while the external view of the blog is fine, the interior admin layout is a mess. My webhost is still using 2.7.1, and I’m about to attempt a manual upgrade to 2.8.4 by copying over most of the old files as set out in Upgrading_WordPress_Extended. I’m happy with the current contents of the database, but have made a backup to my local drive, and will re-import it if necessary.

Okay. Thanks for the pointer.

Two further questions:
1a. If I don’t restore the SQL data, will the contents of the blog remain as they are now?
1b. or will the blog installation be a mess due to overwriting current WP files with older ones?

Yes/No?

2. just to confirm: I can upload the older backup, and SQL data, and everything should be fine.

Yes/No?

Okay. Thanks for the tip.

Thank you for that tip. I’ll look at the documentation and see how far I get…

Thanks for that. It worked very sweetly.

Okay. Thanks for the advice. It sounds like the group will be looking for a new hosting scheme.