ERROR: An error was encountered while trying to authenticate. Please try again.

Hi @converted, thanks for reaching out to us!

Is this an error returned with 2FA and/or reCAPTCHA enabled? If you are using 2FA, do the recovery codes also cause login to fail in this way too?

I wouldn’t rule out a Javascript/plugin conflict so it could be worth seeing if your login page contains errors when you inspect the browser console. You can show us errors here to assist with a service like Snipboard.

In the mean time, you could also try disabling all plugins except for Wordfence and reverting to a default theme such as Twenty Twenty-One. Does the behaviour continue when Wordfence is the only plugin enabled? If not, re-enable your plugins one-by-one and finally your theme to see when it starts reoccurring. You can install a maintenance mode plugin during this time if site visitors are likely to be affected. Browser extensions can also sometimes interfere with these pages so disabling those at the same time, or using a different browser to your default may be an idea during this period of testing too!

Let me know how you get on!

Thanks,

Peter.