Site Down with a Email Could Not Be Sent Error Message

Any chance your index.php or .htaccess file has been changed?

Might need to access via FTP (or cPanel if hosts supports that).

Thanks for your response. I’m checking now. But the problem arose when I approved comments, which should not having any affect on the htaccess file.

It will take me a minute as I have to download new ftp software. Just got a new hard drive and havne’t installed that yet.

OK. I checked and the htaccess file hasn’t been changed. Any other ideas?

~ Leisa

Your index.php file?

youre running 2.3.1

your site is trying to send an email as it loads, hence the message you see when you attempt to bring up any of the pages.

I would back out of whatever you say you just did. If you just approved some comments, go into your database and delete the comments you just approved.

While im not convinced thats the problem, it’s a start since it will negate one of those emails being the issue if the problem persists.

Honestly, given the version that you are using, I would be checking the time stamp on your wp-settings.php file. if it looks suspicious, like its been recently touched (aka edited) .. thats probably your problem.

wp-login.php shows the same thing — its not the index file.

if its a file, its a file thats loaded globally, index.php isnt.

https://science.aneducationaljourney.com/wp-admin/

Sorry. I see that that message is displayed as part of the wp-login.php script when wp_mail returns false.

Wonder if uploading a new copy of wp-includes/pluggable.php from the WordPress distribution (Dowload tab above) could solve the problem.

maybe she requires registration to comment? or view?

Thanks!

The wp-settings.php hasn’t been changed in over a year.

Is it possible to identify the comment without deleting each one? It’s my seven year olds blog and she cherishes every comment. I guess is there something I should look for in the mysql database.

~ Leisa

There is no registration to view or comment required.

Ignore my advise to download pluggable.php from distribution if you aren’t running 2.6.2 ??

Is it possible to identify the comment without deleting each one?

uh, yes.. you just read the content of the comment .. thats all in the database, just like everythign else..

Im assuming you also get emails with comments in which case you ought to be able to look at your emails and compare.

Sorry, yes I looked at the comments and can’t identify anything that looks like they would have posed a problem. All just normal comments. They don’t have links etc. I guess I am not seeing anything that raises a red flag.

~ Leisa

I did delete quite a bit of spam though at the same time. Is it possible that someone developed a script that notified them if I deleted their comment via email and that caused the problem?

Is it possible ..

anything is possible.

As I stated previously, I would start by deleting the comments that you just approved. If you looked at them and are satisfied that there’s nothing malicious, then the next step is to disable your plugins.

Without having access to the wp-admin area, you will need to use your ftp client, and delete OR move the directories and files outside of wp-content/plugins/ …