WordPress

Do you have a problem which the WordPress Dashboard password?

Sniezka behind clouds

Nowadays we need to have a strong password to the WordPress dashboard panel. This can cause a small problem: it is very easy to lose this password. But in this case, you can use the restore password option, and this problem will go. But, what to do, when you remember the password, but still you can’t log in to the WordPress dashboard? In this post, I will show you several tips to restore your WordPress Dashboard password.

Use phpMyAdmin to change the WordPress password

In the post, How to move WordPress site to a new host, we use phpMyAdmin to download whole WordPress databases and then upload them again on the new host. In one of these databases, WordPress keeps a password to the dashboard panel. These databases call “wp_users”

WordPress database where password is stored

When you are logged into the phpMyAdmin dashboard, you can change each database element, including the user password. It’s very simple. Select data bases “wp_user”, then click edit in a row that you want to change password, then select MD5 in password row and type the new password. That’s it. You change the user password.

Place where you can change WordPress User Password

Let’s stay for a wild in MD5 function. What does it mean? Why we use this function?

The MD5 function adds a unique hash value, that rise your password protection. It’s far from an ideal solution, but still much better than using and storing passwords without it. More about the MD5 function you can find here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

I remember the password, but still can’t log in

Unfortunately, there are thousands of WordPress plugins, and most of them can cause trouble. Sometimes plugin wasn’t updated for a long period. Sometimes in the new plugin version, there is a critical bug. There are many ways, that something could go wrong. Finally, you can’t log in to the WordPress dashboard, and your audience isn’t able to visit your web page.

The same problem can appear when the theme crash. So what can you do to solve these problems?

As you remember, WordPress stores whole information in databases. But there are also directories on the server, where WordPress keeps photos, themes files, and plugins files. Plugins are mostly JavaScript code, and the Java Script code is stored in files.

When themes or plugins generated problems, then you can turn off it, and restore your web page functionality. But how to do that, when you can’t log in to your dashboard?

You need to use an FTP server to bring back your WordPress site to live

When you log in to your FTP account, you will see the main folder. In this folder, you need to enter the folder, where WordPress is installed. The name of this folder could be different depending on your hosting provider. Then in the WordPress installation directory find wp-content directories and open them. Here are two directories, where WordPress stored themes and plugins.

Directories where WordPress stores plugins files and themes files

Now to turn off plugins or themes you need to rename directories where information about these plugins or themes are stored. For example, you want to know if some of the installed plugins generated an issue. Open plugin directories and change plugin directories names by added extension “old” or some other but just remember to not rename whole directories name, because it’s a high possibility that you forgot previous directories names, and you won’t be able to bring it back easily.

Change WordPress plugin directories name

So you can turn off plugins one by one and if one of the plugins generated an issue when you turn off it, you will be able to log in to the dashboard again. The same situation with themes. When you remove plugins or themes that cause problems, you will need to turn on the rest of the extension by renamed directories and turn it on back in WordPress Dashboard.

Good Luck

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