8 Most Common WordPress Login Issues (How to Fix Them)
Are you experiencing any WordPress login issues and looking for a solution?
WordPress is a powerful platform. Sometimes you might face occasional errors and bugs. For example, users cannot log into their WordPress admin area. There are several reasons why WordPress login issues might occur.
Here we'll discuss some of the most commonly experienced login issues. We'll look at why they may occur and offer appropriate solutions.
Let's get started!
Table of Content
- List of Common WordPress Login Issues
- 1. Lost or Forgotten Password
- 2. Cache and Cookies
- 3. Plugin Interference
- 4. Theme Interference
- 5. Corrupted Login File
- 6. Redirected WordPress or Site URL
- 7. Corrupted .htaccess File
- 8. Brute-Force Attack
- Final Thoughts
- Frequently Asked Questions
List of Common WordPress Login Issues
WordPress login issues can come in several different shapes. We’ll discuss each potential WordPress login error and the possible solution/fix.
1. Lost or Forgotten Password
Lost or forgotten passwords are common login problems. It’s good for site security to change your password regularly. However, it’s quite easy to forget/lose track of your current password.
WordPress has a built-in feature that helps you easily reset your password. But sometimes you might face difficulty in recovering it.
Recovering a Lost or Forgotten Password:
You can try WordPress’s default recovery feature if you’ve lost or forgotten your password.
Simply click on Lost your password? On the login form, you’ll be asked for your email address. Next, you'll receive an email from WordPress that can create a new password.
2. Cache and Cookies
Cookies are small files with all information about a user’s visit to a site. These cookies help a website remember a visitor. WordPress login can’t occur if the cookies aren’t enabled.
The cache also has temporary files stored on visitors' web browsers when accessing a web page. If visitors’ cache isn’t updating correctly, the user might see the old versions of some files that support WordPress.
Recovering Browser’s Cache and Cookies:
Fortunately, cache and cookie-related WordPress login issues can easily be fixed. You need to enable the cookies (if not enabled) and then go for clearing your cache and cookies.
Go to Google Chrome, click on the browser settings menu, select More Tools, and Clear browsing data.
The new screen with a ‘Clear Browsing Data’ popup will be opened.
Select the “Clear cookies and other site data” and “Cached images and files” checkboxes from here.
Simply click the ‘Clear data’ button, and the browser cache will be cleared.
This will fix the issue for most users.
3. Plugin Interference
Sometimes, login issues might be caused by any plugin. For example, a plugin may need to be updated correctly, or two or more of your plugins could be conflicting.
Solving Plugin Interference With the WordPress Login
First off, make sure that a plugin causes the issue. What you can do is temporarily rename the plugins folder.
Once you’ve renamed the folder, WordPress cannot access it anymore. This will simply disable all activated plugins on your website.
This will confirm that any plugins were behind your login issues and fix them immediately.
4. Theme Interference
WordPress login issues are caused by theme interference. It mostly happens when your theme includes a custom login page or when WordPress is updated and produces a theme incompatibility.
Solving Theme Interference With the WordPress Login
If you find your WordPress Theme troublesome for logging in, you’ll need to do the same as troubleshooting the plugin's error.
Simply rename the folder for your active theme through FTP. Once done, WordPress will automatically revert to its default template.
When you rename the Theme folder, WordPress doesn’t recognize it.
Now try to log in and confirm that the theme was the issue.
5. Corrupted Login File
By default, the WordPress login page is located in wp-login.php, the name of its corresponding file.
When WordPress can’t find the wp-login.php file, you cannot log in to your website and may run into a 404 error.
Restoring a WordPress Login File
To restore your login, you’ll need to replace the wp-login.php file with a new one. To do so, you’ll need to delete your login files.
Locate your wp-login.php file within the WordPress root directory.
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.
Now, open the new login file > search for “redefining user_login.” and replace it with the code shown in the snippet below.
6. Redirected WordPress or Site URL
WordPress has a Settings option where you can your website's URL and your WordPress installation URL.
If you have access to your WordPress admin area, you can see this option under Settings > General.
You'll be redirected to the login page if these URLs are incorrect.
Since you cannot access the WordPress admin area, you’ll need to edit the wp-config.php file to fix this issue.
Fix an Error With Your WordPress Address URL
The wp-config.php file is a special file in WordPress. This file has important WordPress settings. You can access it simply using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your WordPress hosting account dashboard.
You’ll find the wp-config.php file in your site’s root folder. Simply edit the file and paste the following code just before the line says, ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.
define('WP_HOME','https://www.example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://www.example.com');
Note: Replace example.com with your own domain name.
Next, save your changes and upload the file to your website.
Try to log in; hopefully, this will fix the issue for you.
7. Corrupted .htaccess File
Sometimes, you might face a login page refreshing error or an internal server error due to a corrupt .htaccess file.
Fixing a Corrupted .htaccess File
You can easily fix this problem. Access your website through an FTP client.
Once you are there, locate the .htaccess file in the root folder of your website > and download it to your computer as a backup.
Next, go ahead and delete the .htaccess file from your website.
Open the wp-admin directory and if you find a .htaccess file there, delete it as well.
Once you are done, log in to your WordPress site. If you succeeded, it simply means that your .htaccess file stopped you from logging into WordPress.
8. Brute-Force Attack
The WordPress login page is the gatekeeper to your website. Very often, it's the only hurdle to accessing the WordPress dashboard.
You can imagine the consequences of the scenario where hackers manage to go through the login page. Depending upon the compromised account's privileges, they can access, modify, or even delete website content.
Given their structure, hackers often use brute force attacks on WordPress login pages. They deploy automated scripts that try hundreds of username and password combinations in an hour. Since WordPress has default login rate-limiting capabilities, an unprotected login page is an easy target for these scripts.
Securing your Website Using LoginPress
LoginPress plugin's Limit Login Attempts Add-on is a simple fix to this problem. It limits the number of attempts users have to log into your website, so you can easily protect your website against brute force attacks.
This is not it! LoginPress offers a Hide Login Add-on that allows you to change the login page URL to a custom URL. Changing this URL is a good practice to ensure that hackers cannot find it.
WordPress shows error messages on failed login attempts that tell users whether their username or password is incorrect. These hints make hackers' jobs easier by verifying that at least one part of the credentials is correct. LoginPress comes forth and lets you customize these error messages.
Last but not least, LoginPress's premium plans offer a feature to enable Google reCaptcha on the Login, Registration, and Forget form of your WordPress site. It protects your website from spam or abuse. It is like a shield to your website that protects you against bots and other malicious software.
Final Thoughts
Having WordPress login issues can be a source of frustration and result in countless hours of troubleshooting. As you can see, there are many possible reasons for login problems, so you might need clarification about where to start. We have shared a list of 7 login errors with their possible solutions.
Let us know what problem you were facing and how you fixed it.
That’s all! We hope you will now get the list of the Most Common WordPress Login Issues. You may also want to check out How To Display Custom WordPress Footer and Must Have Plugins for Bloggers.