Can't access Wordpress admin login page (redirect error)

0
votes

I’m working on a wordpress site, it’s almost finished. Left it lying on the server for a few weeks after the launch to gather user feedback, and now ready to make some minute adjustments. Loe and behold, can’t login. Going to parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org/wp-admin won’t show me the admin page, but will instead redirect. Sure enough, I had an automatic update to 3.8.2 on April 9 that seems to coincide with the admin access being gone. Contrary to most redirect errors for login pages after an automatic update on forums, the exact url it redirects to is not actually a valid url. You see others reporting the url they are redirected to as being: http://www.domain.org/wp-login.php/?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.domain.org%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1

But mine displays: http://www.parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org-login.php/?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.parentsauxassembleesgenerales.org%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1

And is therefore missing three characters: “/wp” to be identical to the other bugs I saw reported. Needless to say, I still tried all the fixes recommended elsewhere, namely:

(using FTP, Softaculous, dowload of WP 3.8.1 and 3.8.2 from wordpress.org, and PHPmyAdmin)

1- deactivating, renaming, removing plugins, theme, both plugins and theme 2- adding lines of code to wp-config 3- looking at the database to make sure the site url and home url were the right ones and the same 4- updating key files like wp-login.php with a fresh version straight out of a vanilla install. 5- moving the content and wp-config to a fresh install (only recreated the problem).

I’m sort of confused at Softaculous (wp install script in cPanel) for asking if you want automatic updates, but still enabling the small automatic updates (3.8.1 to 3.8.2 or 3.8.3) even if you don’t check the box for automatic updates. I don’t, and never will, want automatic updates on my wordpress: too many plugins and themes have a lag to the wordpress core deployment schedule. (I now know I can just add a line to wp-config.php, but the Softaculous interface could be clearer about the automatic update deal).

Am now in contact with the hosting service to look at solutions such as emptying webcache, restoring from their own weekly backups, their own diagnosis of the faulty redirect route, etc.

I’m looking for a solution that will do one of the following: help me know what causes the redirect error so I can target the problem-solving help me regain access to wp-admin login and the dashboard

1
wordpressredirectloginadmin
Have you installed some security plugin to hide the backend panel? What about making a backup of htaccess and letting wordpress create a new file? – Kimberley Furson
Have you modified the htaccess file at all? – Howli
To Kimberley Furson: there is no security plugin hiding the backend panel. – Gabriel Bergevin-Estable
To Kimberley Furson and Howlin: the htaccess file was not the issue, but I did check that. – Gabriel Bergevin-Estable

1 Answers

0
votes

I found the issue. Despite deactivating the plugins, one of the plugins had caused a problem in the DB which remained even when deactivated, removed or renamed. Had to clean up the relevant redirects in the DB with PhpMyAdmin.

The plugin was Velvet Blues Update URLs, which was recommended for a very small move I was doing (moving the dev version of the site up one folder on the server file system). I hadn't used this plugin before, but it seemed straightforward enough. Not. I usually migrate sites using UpDraftPlus with the pro addon for migration, which works fairly well, but felt longer than it needed to be for a one-folder-up move. Not. The search and replace feature on UpDraftPlus that covers both for file/folder locations and for urls is without compare, and even for what it was supposed to do, Velvet Blues Update URLs didn't deliver on its promise.