After login I get profile page and a BLANK desktop page – only options!

This seems to be either a plugin or a theme issue. The first thing I would try is to go back to the default wordpress theme twentyeleven. To change the theme manually you can just delete the current theme folder on your wordpress server. make sure you have the default theme still installed (you should never delete it). WordPress will pickup the default theme if it can not find the current theme. If that works it means that the problem is with your theme.
Hope that helps,
Nathalie

@contracube: diod you make a pre-upgrade database backup? From what you describe, your user status may have been downgraded to Subscriber which, in theory, could be the result of database damage.

Using Phpmyadmin (or another MySQL management tool), first backup your current database. Then navigate to your wp_usermeta table and locate the meta_key called “wp_capabilities” for your user_id. Change the meta-value for this record to:

a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}

I managed to get my website showing again (I had previously renamed the themes file on the ftp to see if that had an affect on my blank desktop page so I renamed it back again to get the website showing). This didn’t affect the blank desktop though.

Then I got your post.

What would my default theme be called? There was no ‘default’ per se. So I deleted all the themes except ‘twentyten’ including the one I was using ‘hatch’….and I now wish I hadn’t done that as nothing has changed except of course my website does not show again and will not now do so unless I sort out the blank desktop issue.

What would my default theme be called? There was no ‘default’ per se.

Yes there is. It’s the Twenty Eleven theme.

Hi esmi,
Nope I didn’t make a pre-upgrade back-up, (oh dear) will try to do one now if its not too lste…yes your synopsis makes sense re administrator/ subscriber access change. I am the only administrator btw so yes server damage could be right. I will have a go at your instructions and report back…. thanks.

@esmi: do you know where “wp_capabilities” is typically found? I’m trying unsuccessfully to find it through my ftp Mozilla. Whilst I have made a back-up copy of my whole site I didn’t upload Phpmyadmin to it yet as I got completely bogged down by it’s requirements and details and worried I might make matters worse due to my limited tech ability; I have a pretty basic and minimal website. I’m trying also to get my hosting company to solve the issue, unsuccessfully so far.

@esmi . OK I have now got access to my database and they do use phpmyadmin. I made the change you suggested but no changes to my problem have occurred.

Here is a screen shot: https://i38.servimg.com/u/f38/17/78/97/62/untitl10.jpg

<img src=”https://i38.servimg.com/u/f38/17/78/97/62/untitl10.jpg&#8221; border=”0″ alt=”Image hosted by servimg.com” />

Any ideas?

wp_capabilities is in the wp_user_meta table. If you were the original admin for the site, you need to change the value for user_id 1

Thank you very much @esmi the situation is now resolved. Without your helpful suggestions I would still be struggling.

Actually it was fixed slightly differently to how you suggested and I’m embarrassed to admit that I can see now that it was mostly user error.

Basically the problem has occurred as my last desktop’s motherboard went down and I temporarily lost my Browsers bookmarks and stored passwords etc (until yesterday). So when I set up a new desktop computer and browser I had to login afresh and had forgotten the exact login name and password. I tried a few variations of what it could be and got access but not as I thought as an ‘Administrator’ but somehow as a new user which unfortunately defaulted as a ‘subscriber’. I would not have realized this had you not directed me to the metatable and I noticed the two users.

I have now changed the new user settings in general/ settings to ‘editor’. So the problem shouldn’t happen again as I’m the only administrator/ editor.

Thanks again!

Resolved.