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404 errors

404’s are part of every website. 404 error comes when requested page not found on the web server. Are you experiencing a lot of 404 page not found errors in WordPress? 404 errors are not good for your site’s SEO and user experience. Therefore, quickly fixing them on your site is imperative ( if they exist, of course).

Fortunately, WordPress enables you to tackle 404 errors using multiple methods, most of which are quite easy to implement. In this guide, we’ll talk about what 404 errors are, explain how to detect broken links on your site, discuss creating a custom error page, and show you how to fix the issue using different methods. Now, let’s get started.

What the 404 Error for WordPress Is? Why is Your WordPress Site Showing a 404 Error?

“404 error” refers to the error code your browser displays when it can’t find what you’re looking for. Your browser will always look for the URL entered, regardless of whether it exists. If it doesn’t find anything, you’ll see an error.

Another reason for mysterious 404 errors for existing content is a missing or corrupt .htaccess file.

If you installed a new plugin, created a new custom post type, or registered a custom taxonomy, then accessing the new URL may result into a 404 error because your .htaccess file is not updated.

These are just few of the many possible reasons that may cause existing content to show 404 errors.

The harm caused by the 404 error for your site

It sounds like a hassle, but 404 errors can have serious negative repercussions, such as :

• They’re highly frustrating: In a lot of cases, your visitors might not be able to differentiate between your site being down and a 404 error. It means they might keep trying to access the same page and become frustrated
• It makes you look unprofessional: No one enjoys running into a “broken” site. Even if the 404 error isn’t your fault, it can impact how your visitors perceive you.
• An increased bounce rate. Some people will leave your site immediately after running into this error, which will increase your bounce rate and affect your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Continue…

Use FTP Client

Uploading Media Files in Bulk

WordPress doesn’t recognize media files in the Media Library that were uploaded from anywhere other than Media Library or via the Add Media button. This means that when you upload media files through the FTP client to your site’s Uploads folder then they won’t appear in the Media Library.

Upload Files

However, WordPress needs certain files and folders in specific locations to work properly. This means you cannot just upload a file anywhere. You need to know where to upload a file in your WordPress site.

For example, if you want to manually upload a plugin to your WordPress website. Then first you will need to download the plugin to your computer.

After that you will need to unzip the plugin file. Inside the zip file, you will find the plugin folder. WordPress looks for plugins in the /wp-content/plugins/folder.

You will first need to go to /wp-content/plugins/folder in the Remote site column. After that you can upload the plugin folder from your computer to your website.

Once you have uploaded the plugin, you need to visit the plugins page inside your WordPress admin area to activate the plugin.

Similarly, if you wanted to upload a premium theme to your website, you will first download and unzip the theme folder on your computer. After that, you can upload it to /wp-content/themes/folder on your website.

FTP is not just used to upload files from your computer to your WordPress website. It can also be used to download files from your website and edit them.

Simply right-click on the files or folders you want to download under the “Remote Site” column and click on the download button.

BACKUP FILES

You can also use FTP to backup all WordPress files. Simply select all files and folders and download them to your computer.

However, keep in mind that this is just the backup of your WordPress files, and it doesn’t include your content (Database). If you want to backup content as well, then you can do so by creating a manual backup of your WordPress database.

Managing File Permissions in FileZilla

Another task that is commonly managed via FTP is changing file and directory permissions. To change file or directory permissions navigate to the directory or file you wish to manage, right-click to open the contextual menu, and select File permissions…from the bottom of the menu.

Adjust permissions using the checkboxes or by entering a numeric value in the appropriate field. Click Ok and new permissions will take effect.

Editing a Website File via FTP

One of the most common WordPress FTP tasks is to open and edit wp-config.php. To do this, first, locate the file. In a standard WordPress installation, you’ll find it in your website’s root directory.

Use the local site section of FileZilla to locate your computer’s desktop, and then drag the wp-config.php file from the web server to your desktop. This will copy the file to your desktop.

Before editing your file, create a second copy of it on your desktop with a slightly different name. Simply renaming the copied version x-wp-config.php will do. Now, open the properly - named version (wp-config.php) and edit to your heart’s content.

The last step in the process is to go back to FileZilla and drag the updated version of the file from your computer desktop back to the web server. When you do, FileZilla will ask you to verify that you want to overwrite the file on the server and provide several options. Select the Overwrite option and click OK.

Now, access your website to make sure that the intended change has taken effect. If something unpected occurs, use the backup copy of wp-config.php on your desktop to restore your site’s original wp-config.php on your desktop to restore your site’s original wp-config.php file.

We hope this article helped you learn how to use FTP.

Use FTP Client

1. Connecting To Your WordPress Site Using FTP

Towards the top of the FileZilla window will be space to enter the FTP account information. Enter it and click on the “QuickConnect” button.

You can also go to File » Site Manager.

This will bring up a pop up window where you can add your wedsite information. Click on the “New Site” button and provide a title for your website.

In the protocol section, you can select protocal (FTP or SFTP).

Under the logon type field, select “Normal” and then enter your FTP username and password.

Now we can click on the connect button to continute. FileZilla will save your website settings for future logins and open a new FTP connection to your website.

In this is your first time connecting to your website from this computer, then FileZilla may show you a certificate popup.

Check the box next to “Always trust certificate for future sessions’ and click on the OK button to continute.

FileZilla will now attempt to login to your website using the credentials you entered.

2. Transferring Files Through FTP

Wait a couple of seconds with FileZilla connects to your account. Once connected, you will see the list of files and folders on your website under the “Remote site” column.

The remote site column displays files and folders on your website and the “Local site” section shows files on your computer.

You can browse Local site to locate the files on your computer that you want to upload to your website. All you have to do is drag and drop them from the local site box to remove site box.

At the very bottom of your FileZilla FTP client’s screen, you’ll notice three tabbed section:

• Queued files: Queued files are those that you’ve selected to transfer and are in the process of transferring from your local computer to the remote web serve
• Failed transfers: these files are those that were selected to be tranferred but were not successfully transferred to the remote server.
• Successful transfers: this tab displays a list of the files that were successfully transferred from your local computer to the server.

If your files were successfully transferred then you’re good to go - the selected files are now uploaded to your WordPress website’s server.

Continue…

FTP CLIENT SOFTWARE

An FTP Client is a software designed to transfer files back-and-forth between a computer and a server over the Internet. It needs to be installed on your computer and can only be used with a live connection to the Internet.

With an FTP Client uploading/downloading a file is really easy. Furthermore, FTP clients have some extra features. For example, you can resume a download that did not finish successfully. This is a very nice feature for people with slower Internet connections.

Here are some of the most popular FTP clients that you can install.

• FileZilla (Window, Mac, Linux | Free)
• WinSCP (Windows | Free)
• Cyberduck (Mac | Free)
• Transmit (Mac |Free)
• Notepad++ (Windows | Free) …..

FTP client’s interface is usually divided in two - the panel on the left shows the files and folders on your computer (Desktop, My Documents, etc,) and the panel on the right displays the files on the remote server (if this is your website hosting account, you will see the public_html folder, where the files of your site are stored).

In this tutorial, we will be using FileZilla. You can use any other FTP client that you like. The basic concepts are the same regardless of the software you use. Nevertheless, we recommend that you download as it’s the most effective to use and the most user - friendly. It is an open - source FTP client that was developed for Windows

Use FTP Client

When you open your FTP client, it will ask you to connect to your website using your FTP login credentials.

Your FTP login credentials are send to you via email when you sign up for your WordPress hosting account. You can also find your FTP account information in your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard.

If you cannot find the login credentials, then you can contact your hosting provider to get this information:

• Host name
• Username
• Password
• port number (maybe)

Once you have account information, you can access your files by opening FileZilla.

Continue…

Are you looking to learn how to use FTP to upload files on your WordPress website? In this article, we will show you how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.

What is FTP?

FTP is short for File transfer protocol. It’s a fast and simple way to upload files from your computer to your website.

FTP is a transfer protocol designed to aid in the moving of files from one location to another over a network. FTPs are widely used to access the contents of web servers and many enthusiast groups will creat FTP servers as a way to share files between members. While you can connect to an FTP server using your browser, you will find a lot more functionality if you use a dedicated FTP client.

FTP is essential for:

• Downloading WordPress files to back up.
• Adding manual plugins and themes.
• Uploading manual images and other kinds of media.
• Customizing your WordPress files (for advanced users only)
• Transferring your blog or website to another hosting account.

In this guide, we will learn how to use FTP. Learning how to FTP work, how to access FTP servers…

How to use FTP?

To transfer files via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), you need to establish an FTP connection. To make an FTP connection you can use a standard Wed browser ( Internet Explorer, Mozilla firefox, chrome, etc.) or FTP Client.

When using a wed browser for an FTP connection, FTP uploads are sometimes very slow, and downloads are not protected (not recommended for uploading or downloading large files). So, using a browser is usually much slower and less reliable than using a designated client.

The most easiest way to connect to an FTP is install and use a visual client. For this reason, we will devote the whole next article to focus on using an FTP cliend.

Theme Issues

WordPress themes are another common cause of login errors. To find out whether the problem is being caused by your theme, you need to deactive your theme. The process is similar to deactivating the plugin.

To do this, connect to your website using an FTP client.

Next, go to /wp-content/themes/ directory and rename your current theme directory to anything. WordPress will look for your current theme and will fall back to the default theme.

Finally, try logging in again. If you succeed, then this means your theme was causing the issue. You may contact the theme provider or choose to use another theme.

If you are already using the default theme as your current theme, then you can still rename it and try to login. If you are able to successfully login then this means that your default theme may have been coorupted. Download a fresh copy of the default theme from WordPress theme respository and upload it to your website.

Corrupted Login File

If the WordPress login file: “wp-login.php”, is corrupted, deleted, or misplaced, you won’t be able to access the login screen at all.

Solution:

To check if this is the problem ( and to simultaneously resolve it) you will need to replace the file with a new one.

• Backup WordPress before deleting your login file.
• Locate your “wp-login.php” file with an FTP client and delete it. You’ll find it in the directory where you’ve installed WordPress.
• Next, download the latest version of WordPress and locate the “wp-login.php” file in the new download
• Copy this file in place of your deleted file.

If the login file was the issue, you should now be good to go.

Url show 404 not found, or url redirects, or page refreshes.

In some cases, you may type in your WordPress login url correctly but be taken to a “404 not found” error page, or redirected to another page. Or you may get to the correct page but it simply refreshes when you try to login.

SOLUTION:

You can usually fix this problem by “creating a new .htaccess File” or “updating your site url.”

Create a new .htaccess File

Sometimes .htaccess file can get corrupted which can result in internal server errors or login page refreshing error. Simply access your website through FTP.

First, you want to confirm if .htaccess is the source of your problem, and you can do this by renaming this file to disable it, and trying to login after that.

Search for the .htaccess file. Right click on it, select “Rename” and change the name.

Now go to your login url and try to login your WordPress admin dashboard.

If you succeed, then this means that your .htaccess file were stopping you from logging into WordPress. Once you are logged in, simply go to Setting > Permalinks and click Save. This will generatea new .htaccess file.

Update your site url

If the step above doesn’t fix your login issue, then you may need to manually set your site url.

There are several ways to set your site url but the easiest is to edit your wp_config file. Simply add these two lines of code in your wp-config.php file and don’t forget to replace the example.com with your own URL.

We hope that the solutions included in this tutorial series can help you resolve the WordPress login. Let’s quickly recap the solutions to run through if you’re having issues :

• Retrieve lost password or Using the built-in recovery feature.
• Reset password by editing your database using PhpMyAdmin.
• Reset password by editing functions.php file.
• Clear your browser cache and cookies.
• Deactivate All Plugins.
• Revert back to the default theme.
• Replace your login file.
• Create a new .htaccess File.
• Update your site url.

How many of these issues have you come across while working on your WordPress sites? Please Let us know which method worked for you by leaving a comment below. Or if the method you used is not mentioned in this article. We will update the article to make this guide more perfect.

Refreshing & Redirecting Issue

Another type of login errors is when your login page keeps refreshing & redirecting it back to the login screen. Login issues can be caused by various different errors such as error establishing database connection, internal server errors or white screen of death. In this article, we will show you how to fix the WordPress login page refreshing & redirecting issue.

Cache and Cookies

Cookies are smalls files located in browser directories that store information about a user’s interaction with specific websites. WordPress requires the use of cookies during the login process. If cookies are not enabled, WordPress login can’t occur.

Many WordPress login problems have been originated to problems with cookies and cache. Luckily, cache and cookies issues are usually easily fixed. First, check that cookies are enabled and then clear both your browser cache and cookies.

In Chorme

Turn cookies on or off

1. On your computer, open Chrome
2. At the top right, click More Settings.
3. At the bottom, click Advanced.
4. Under “Privacy and security,” click Content settings.
5. Click Cookies.
6. From here, you can:
   • Turn on cookies: Next to “Blocked,” turn on the switch.
   • Turn off cookies: Turn off Allow sites to save and read cookie data.

Clear cache & cookies

1. On your computer, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, click More .
3. Click More tools Clear browsing data.
4. At the top, choose a time range. To delete everything, select All time.
5. Next to “Cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files,” check the boxes.
6. Click Clear data.

In other browsers

If you use Safari, Firefox, or another browser, please refer to here.

Now, try to login to your WordPress admin dashboard.

Deactivate All Plugins

It’s possible for a plugin to interference with the login process. A plugin may not have been updated properly, or there could be a conflict between two or more of your plugins.

The simplest way to check if plugins are the cause of your login problem is to deactivate them. But since you cannot login to do this, you have to deactive them by renaming the plugins folder so WordPress no longer reads it.

First you need to connect to your website via FTP. Once connected, you need to navigate to the /wp-content/folder.

Inside wp-content folder, you will see a folder called plugins. This is where WordPress stores all plugins installed on your website.

Right click on the plugins folder and select Rename. Change the name plugins folder to anything that you like. In our example, we will call it “plugins.backup”. Once you do this, all of your plugins will be deactived.

Now try to login to your WordPress dashboard.

If you are able to login, this means one of your plugins is the cause of your WordPress login issues. Now, go back to your /wp-content/folder and rename “plugins.backup” back to “plugins”. Then, you can activate one plugin at a time until your site breaks agains. At which point, you will know exactly which plugin caused the issue.

Having WordPress login issues can be the source of much frustration and result in countless hours of troubleshooting. As you can see, there are lots of potential causes of login problems so it can be difficult to know where to start.

We will devote a follow-up article to provide you with the remaining solutions.

Reset Password

If the ways in the previous post can’t help you reset password, then there is a way to reset it directly in your WordPress database using phpMyAdmin. Or you also can do this by editing your functions.php file. In this guide, we will show you how to easily reset password from phpMyAdmin or from functions.php file .

Reset password by editing your database using PhpMyAdmin

This way is for those who have phpMyAdmin. You should only use this method if you’re comfortable with working with databases in this fashion. It’s also recommended that you always back up your database prior to making any database modifications directly.

What is phpMyAdmin ?

It’s a simple, but powerful, application that allows you control over your databases, and can be easily used to change all kinds of information stored in the MySQL databases it manages.

Let’s start.

1. Login to your site admin panel (e.g: cPanel). Ask your webhost for the login details and link if you do not have them
2. In cPanel, scroll down to the databases section and click on PhpMyAdmin.
3. Click on Databases to view all databases in your account
4. Click on your WordPress databases.
5. From the panel list, click on the “user” table. This is usually named “wp_users”, unless you specified a different prefix when installing WordPress. In that case, it will be “yourprefix_users”
6. Under user_login you will see the list of registered users. Under the user whose password you wish to reset, click edit.
7. Enter your new password in the “users_pass” input box, select md5 from the function dropdown list, and click Go (or perform)
8. Test the new password on the login screen.

Congratulations! You have successfully changed your WordPress password using phpMyAdmin.

Reset password by editing functions.php file

There is also an easy way to reset your password via FTP. You need ftp access to use this file.

1. Login to your site via FTP
2. Go to “…/wp-content/theme/[whichever is your active theme]”
3. Open the function.php file
4. Edit the file and add this code to it, right at the begging, after the first <?php:Put in your own new password for the main admin user. The “1” is the user ID number in the wp_users table
5. Save the file.
6. Login to WordPress.
7. After you then are able to login, make sure to go back and remove that code. It will reset your password on every page load until you do.

And that’s how to reset your WordPress admin password using FTP.

We hope that the solutions covered in this guide were able to get you back in control of your WordPress site. If you have tried any other solutions that worked, please tell us about them in the comments section.

If you are still locked out of our WordPress admin dashboard for any reason. Please follow our next article.

Lost Password

If you have many WordPress blogs, websites. If you change your password regularly to help with site security, it’s very easy to forget or lose track of your current password. This is an obvious one, but nonetheless an important problem, is an of the most frequently problems. Even the most tech savvy people forget their passwords now and then. That’s why WordPres make it super easy to recover a lost password in WordPress.

In this guide, we will show you how to resolve the WordPress login problem.

How to solved the forgotten password problem?

Solution 1: retrieve lost password ​

If you’ve lost or forgotten your password, if you’ve used multiple browsers or devices to log into WordPress. First, check to see if any of those browsers or devices are still logged in. Then access the admin panel and change your password

Solution 2: Using the built-in recovery feature

If you have not already tried, try resetting your password. You can reset your password by clicking “Lost your password?” in your admin login page.

You will be taken to a page where you can enter either your username or your email address

Please click “Reset password” and WordPress will send you a link via email which you can use to create a new password.

However, if for some reason, you have tried to reset your password this way but not received any email, then you need do a manual password reset.

You can do this by “editing your database using PhpMyAdmin” or “editing your funtions.php file”

Solution 3: Reset password by editing your database using PhpMyAdmin

In this situation,you need to reset your WordPress password directly in the database. The easiest way to do that is by using phpMyAdmin. This process is quite easy, you can manually edit your database and change your password

Warning : Always exercise caution when working with the database. PhpMyAdmin allows you to interact with the database directly: it also lets you mess up the database directly. So, use phpMyAdmin at your own risk. WordPress is not responsible for lost of data. If you doubt your ability to use it, seek further advice.

Due to the level of risk, please read our step by step guide on resetting your password using this method in the next article.

SEE YOU AGAIN!