Just lost our whole site doing wp upgrade

Hello!

It looks like there is some error in Your theme’s files which stops the site execution. I know, this looks pretty frightening, but there is absolutely no data lost.

The only thing You have to do is to deactivate the theme. If You can still access Your WordPress Dashboard, please go to Appearance->Themes and activate a theme other than Your current theme (the default twenty fifteen, twenty fourteen themes are good choices). This way Your site will be up and running again, and it will be easier to resolve the issue from that point.

If You cannot access the Dashboard, You need to open Your site with an FTP software or use some kind of file browser, if Your hosting company provides one. Please go to Your wp-content directory and inside that open the themes directory. There You will see a couple of folders, every folder corresponding to a theme You have installed in Your WordPress site. Among others there is a folder called wplms, please rename that to something like wplms-bad. The name You choose is not important, the point is to rename the folder. This way WordPress cannot find longer the currently active theme’s files, and it will automatically activate some other theme, and this way You will be able to access Your WordPress Dashboard.

Here is a video how to use and FTP software to access a WordPress site’s files.

If You have any questions or need assistance related to this, just feel free to post a reply here and I am happy to help.

Cheers,
Balint

Okay thanks so much for quick response – we cant access dashbd in normal way, so we’re gonna go to host now and rename wplms as you suggested.

Talk soon, thanks

bh

Hmmm

We went to our Hostserver, we cant seem to change the name of that wplms folder, as when we right-click, the ‘rename’ options doesnt come up.

Should we email the Hostserver to restore to last backup?

bh

Hello!

About the backup restore, it can be a good idea, however since You have said You were updating Your plugins, make sure You request a backup restore of Your files AND the database also, because on plugin updates there are changes made to Your database too. However, this means that all the modifications (student activity, comments, new posts, etc) that happened after the last database backup was made, will be lost.

Don’t know how big issue is that personally for You, but I think first I would try only asking them to rename the folder name for You, and try to find and resolve the issue in the code from there.

Restoring a backup if that doesn’t work is still a possibility, however, ask the hosting company to hold on to those backup files, if they only maintain 1 backup of Your site, it could be overwritten with Your site’s current state, which the bug in it.

Let me know how it goes, I am here to assist if needed.

Cheers,
Balint

Hmmm

We downloaded FileZilla, but when we try to connect to our hostserver (hg) it comes up with error message:

Could not connect to server
Status: Waiting to retry…
Status: Resolving address of https://www.hostgator.com
Status: Connecting to 216.12.194.67:21…
Status: Connection attempt failed with “ECONNREFUSED – Connection refused by server”.
Error: Could not connect to server

So, at this stage, we’re gonna contact hostserver to restore files & database (all) from last backup

bh

Based on the error messages, it looks like that the login information for FTP is not right. Somewhere in Your hostgator control panel there should be a menu item Ftp accounts or something similar, where the available ftp login credentials are listed, or You can create new ones.

Keep me updated how the restore goes.

Balint

Hmmm

Okay, as for the ftp thing, if you go to our host server

hostgator home page

files:

ftp accounts
ftp session control

Which one do I use?

bh

ftp accounts

When we go to ‘ftp accounts’ we get the option to ‘configure an ftp client’ data as follows:

Login Path Usage / Quota Actions
[email protected] /home/brento…ecourses.com 186 / ∞ MB

Change
Password Change
Quota Delete Configure
FTP Client?

Is this what we want?

bh

It is possible that there is no account there, in that case simply create a new one.

yes, I think this is it. If You dont know the password, feel free to change it, I never used Hostgator, but I think the ftp password is not the same as the password for the Hostgator control panel.

In this case, I think australiaonlinecourses is the ftp username, and brisbanemobileaccountant.com is the ftp hostname.

I tried to create one, but it says it ‘already exists’

so do i find it and ‘configure it’?

bh

if it says it already exists, try creating one with a different username, because I doubt that it will show You the passwords of already created accounts.

okay, I’ll check it out now

And by the way, sorry, for some reason I assumed that You use hostgator. Could You please tell me what hosting company do You use?

Balint