What To Do When You Are Locked Out of WordPress Admin

October 26. 2021

Are you unable to log in and access the Admin dashboard in WordPress? When there’s work to be done, and you can’t access the platform you are using – most people would start panicking. Without access to the dashboard, you can’t create, edit and publish posts, or perform pretty much anything on your website. However, instead of stressing out, we recommend that you try the solutions in our guide on what to do when you are locked out of WordPress Admin.

Why did you get locked out of WordPress in the first place

Unfortunately, there is no single answer to your problem, and it can be caused by multiple different issues. You can contact the website owner, tell them about the problem and hope they will fix it in a reasonable time. However, things are a little bit different when you are the owner of the site.

Being locked out of WordPress Admin can feel like getting locked out of your own home or car. Probably the best way to describe it is a sensation of frustration and helplessness. The problem might not even come from a mistake you made. Nonetheless, if you are the site owner – it’s up to you to fix it.

We recommend you approach it like a process of elimination and try different solutions. Who knows, it might not even be WordPress-related and you can fix it by clearing your cache and cookies. Eventually, you’ll figure out what the problem was and get a solution that works for your situation. Although the problems and their individual fixes can be different, they all share one thing in common – you are locked out of WordPress Admin. That’s an issue you’ll need to solve as soon as possible in order to continue working on your site.

Here are the 5 most common causes of being locked out of WordPress Admin, and how to fix them:

1. The “This has been disabled” message

Undoubtedly one of the most common issues when logging into WordPress is getting a “This has been disabled” message. The root cause is probably that you are attempting to log in with the wrong URL. This is a common beginner’s issue, but it can still prevent you from accessing your website. In layman’s terms, it means that you have the wrong login address. Sites sometimes use plugins that hide the URL, or simply change the login URL to a custom address. Website owners may want to hide the address to make it difficult for hackers to brute force their way in.

Solution: You can solve this issue by following your guide on How to find your WordPress login URL.

2. You forgot the login password

Another rookie mistake is forgetting the login password to your website. Or perhaps you lost access to the email account you were using to reset the password. These are both trivial mistakes, which are luckily easy to handle.

A more sinister situation would be if you are sure you’re using the correct password, but still can’t log in. This could mean that someone hacked your login information, and changed the password without your knowledge. And when you do try to change the password it doesn’t work and you don’t get an email notification. You never receive the email because it goes to an address you don’t have access to.

Solution: Your best course of action is to reset your Admin password for WordPress.

3. The login page keeps refreshing and redirecting

This error prevents you from even attempting a login by constantly refreshing and redirecting you to the login page. The usual culprits are incorrect URL values for the site and home fields. However, it can also be caused if you haven’t set login cookies or poorly configured permalink settings.

Solution: There can be multiple causes for this issue, and we suggest trying the fixes in our Login Page Guide.

4. Lockout due to too many login attempts

You were positive that the password you used was the correct one, so you tried it again and again. Only later did you realize that the Caps Lock key was on. Now you are locked out of your website and a security plugin is preventing you from trying the password again. Realistically, the plugin did perform its job well – it’s there to prevent hackers from brute-forcing their way in. However, you might not be so thrilled now that you’re the one who is locked out of the WordPress Admin dashboard.

Solution: Get around this problem by disabling the WordPress plugin which is preventing new login attempts. It can be done even without accessing the Admin area of the website.

5. Error establishing a database connection

This error message is informing you that your website can’t connect to the MySQL database. It can be caused by issues with the web hosting server or corrupt database issues from failed updates. As there are multiple causes, you will need to try out several different fixes, which can be a time sink.

Solution: Luckily, we have a handy guide which details what you need to do to Fix Database Connection Errors.

Fixing other issues

A lot can go wrong with any website.  After all, they are essentially just a bunch of ones and zeroes. Just a few misplaced lines of code or a third-party plugin can bring everything to a screeching halt. We’ve covered the most common problems which can cause you to be locked out of WordPress Admin. However, listing every single problem you may encounter goes well beyond the scope of one article. If you are unable to fix the issues on your own or just have no idea where to start – you can contact WordPress experts WPFullCare for help. We will get your website up and running and fix any issues which are preventing you from logging in.

In conclusion

Your website will require maintenance, and from time to time you might encounter issues that prevent you from logging in. The first thing you need to do is to stay calm. You can use this guide for what to do when you are locked out of WordPress Admin and try some of the solutions yourself! We are sure that with a little patience you’ll have full control of your site in no time.