WordPress Login Not Working: How to Regain Admin Access

Locked out of WordPress? There is always a way back in. The method depends on what is actually failing – a forgotten password is different from a redirect loop which is different from a hidden login URL. Find your symptom below and go directly to that fix. None of these require restoring from backup.

Problem 1: Forgot WordPress Password

Click “Lost your password?” on wp-login.php. Enter your username or email and WordPress sends a reset link. If the reset email does not arrive: check spam, verify your WordPress email is configured correctly, and ensure WordPress can send email (many shared hosts block PHP mail – install FluentSMTP to fix this long-term).

If email is completely broken, reset the password directly in the database via phpMyAdmin:

1. Log into phpMyAdmin through your hosting control panel
2. Open your WordPress database -> wp_users table
3. Find your user row and click Edit
4. In the user_pass field, change the Function to MD5 and enter your new password
5. Click Go to save

Alternatively, add this to your active theme’s functions.php temporarily, load any page to execute it, then immediately remove it:

wp_set_password( 'your_new_password', 1 ); // 1 is the admin user ID

Problem not solved? Describe the issue and get a free estimate.

Problem 2: Login Page Redirects Back to Itself

An infinite redirect loop on the login page is usually a cookie or URL configuration problem. Check these in order:

WordPress URL mismatch: Go to phpMyAdmin -> wp_options table. Find the rows named “siteurl” and “home”. Their values must exactly match your actual site URL including protocol (https:// vs http://). If they say http:// but your site redirects to https://, the login cookies are set for the wrong domain and the redirect loops. Update both values to match your actual URL.

Cookies blocked: Clear all browser cookies for your domain and try logging in. If it works after clearing cookies, a corrupted cookie was causing the loop.

Security plugin redirect: Some security plugins hide or redirect the login page. If you recently installed a security plugin like WPS Hide Login, access the original login URL and also check if the plugin set a custom login URL in its settings (accessible via wp-admin if you can reach it some other way).

Problem 3: wp-login.php Returns a 404

If wp-login.php returns a 404 error, the page is either hidden by a security plugin or your .htaccess file is corrupted. First, check if you installed a “hide login URL” security plugin – if so, use the custom URL it set. If not, your .htaccess may be broken. Replace it with the default WordPress .htaccess:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Upload this to your web root via FTP, overwriting the existing .htaccess. Then visit wp-login.php again.

Problem 4: “Error Establishing a Database Connection” on Login

This error means WordPress cannot connect to the MySQL database. Check wp-config.php: the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST must match your actual database credentials. These sometimes change when a host migrates servers or when a database password is reset. Get the correct credentials from your hosting control panel and update wp-config.php.

Problem 5: Create a New Admin User via phpMyAdmin

If all else fails, create a new admin user directly in the database:

-- Insert new user
INSERT INTO wp_users (user_login, user_pass, user_nicename, user_email, user_status)
VALUES ('newadmin', MD5('your_password'), 'New Admin', 'admin@yoursite.com', '0');

-- Get the new user's ID
SELECT ID FROM wp_users WHERE user_login = 'newadmin';

-- Add admin capabilities (replace X with the ID from above)
INSERT INTO wp_usermeta (umeta_id, user_id, meta_key, meta_value)
VALUES (NULL, X, 'wp_capabilities', 'a:1:{{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}}');

INSERT INTO wp_usermeta (umeta_id, user_id, meta_key, meta_value)
VALUES (NULL, X, 'wp_user_level', '10');