WordPress 2.6 Upgrade Login Problems
If you are planning to upgrade your WordPress system to 2.6, there are a few things that you need to prepare. There is a weird thing that happens after you upgrade: you can’t log in or reset your password. I had a freaking heart attack after upgrading and all of a sudden I couldn’t log back in!
Fortunately, there was already support info on WordPress’ blog. You have to clear out your cookies to log back in. So, what can you do to prepare for the install without getting freaked out or dealing with problems installing multiple systems as I have to do?
First of all, it’s easier to use Firefox to do all this since it has an easy way to clear your cookies, just hit control, shift and delete at the same time and a box will pop up. Make sure the “cookies” box and “authenticated sessions” box is checked and hit “Clear Private Data. You can also reach this in FireFox by going to tools > Clear Private Data.
So the process to upgrade is basically the same as always except that after you do the upgrade, and are asked to log back in, clear your cookies, THEN try to log in. On 3 installs I had to have the password reset, but I didn’t have to on 2 others so I can’t explain the difference. The key is to be prepared for any bad things that could happen.
WordPress 2.6 Upgrade Checklist To Fix Login Failure Problems
Just know that if you are getting ready to upgrade to WordPress 2.6 have the following stuff ready:
- Backup your database! - this is more important than ever since there are a lot of reported bugs with version 2.6.
- Make sure you have your user information - Have the logins, emails and passwords for all administrator accounts. I don’t use the admin account to post articles so all my blogs have at least 2 administrator accounts. You might want to upgrade an account to administrator while doing the upgrade.
- Make sure your WordPress system is sending emails - you will be screwed if your WordPress system can’t send you the password if you need to reset it. Test that your system is sending emails and that you know and have access to the administrator accounts.
- Upgrade WordPress - go ahead and deactivate your plugins and run the upgrade script.
- Clear your cookies! you can use the Ctrl - Shift - Delete keys on your keyboard to launch the cookie clearer in Firefox, or go to Tools - Clear Private Data in Firefox or go to Tools - Delete Browsing History if you must use Internet Explorer.
- Log into your WordPress system as an administrator - once your cookies are cleared you can try to log in as an admin ad start activating your plugins.
- Activate Plugins One At A Time! - do not activate your plugins in bulk mode! If there is a problem with a plugin you will screw your entire system up if you don’t activate your plugins one at a time. If you have a problem with a plugin, but can’t access your plugin page anymore after the run-once screen pops up, you will have use a FTP client to delete the plugin or add a 1 to the extension. Make sure that if you use the automatic upgrade feature for plugins that the plugin that you are upgrading is deactivated before automatically upgrading it.
That should get you through the process of upgrading to WordPress 2.6 and deal with the login problem. Tomorrow I am going to post a tutorial on how to troubleshoot “WordPress White Screen of Death” problems. Remember to back up everything!
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Hey Mikael, after reading you upgrade post, I have one question: Is the upgrade worth the trouble?
Jim
iraji,
Good question, there are some good features in 2.6 especially the new Flickr stuff that really interest me. I have to say that it is a pain in the *ss because the plugins don’t all work. I have also had issues with the rss feed and some other annoying things. I recommend that if you are going to upgrade to 2.6 make sure you have access to your log files so if you get the “WordPress White Screen of Death”, you can view your php logs and see where the failure is.
I am going to post some techniques to view log files and troubleshoot plugin issues tomorrow.
If you feel comfortable with your plugins and have a good backend or better yet know SSH and can view your logs, than go for it. If not, you might want to wait a little bit until there is some more support info out there on 2.6
Phew! That sure helped me a lot. But I’ve a new problem after upgrading. My pics in new posts don’t show. Is this a reported bug?
Jacque
Ah! Found it in the Support Forum…Setting>Misc and set the url for pictures
I was still unable to log in until I updated my sitename. My website was http://northam.us in the wp_options table. Once I updated it to be http://www.northam.us/ I could login.
Here’s the actual SQL I used to do the update
update wp_options set options_value = ‘http://www.northam.us/’ where option_name = ’siteurl’;
I could have easily entered this on the admin settings screen before upgrading but I didn’t realize until after upgrading when it was too late.
-Eric
If the claring cookies stuff does not work, then try renaming the plugins folder, clear your cache once again and then try logging in. It should work… and then upgrade your database as per instructions and rename your pugins folder back to plugins and reactivate them. It worked for me!