Can't access site admin after upgrade

Hi drwcb, since this morning I’m experiencing the same problem with one of my clients sites. It redirects to an empty page https://www.tomwesselink.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomwesselink.com%2Fwp-admin%2F&reauth=1 . No private areas of a larger website here. It’s just a simple few-paged website.

Thank you to marleendh. It’s useful to know that this is not because my client’s WordPress installation is private.

Have you put your own issue in this forum? Has anyone helped you solve the problem?

I myself have now carried out a complete manual update, following the WordPress instructions to the letter — only to get exactly the same problem when I try to access the site admin. Exactly the same weird URL over a bank page.

Can anyone help? My client is becoming restive.

You have FTP access, Can you find the error log file?

or get backup the existing wp-admin folder and replace with fresh one which is get it from online

Hi Rajan V. Thank you for your suggestions. There is no error log file. I searched myself, then used an FTP search. No such file found.

I have just an hour ago deleted the entire wp-admin folder and replaced it with a brand-new one from the latest version on the WordPress site. Still being directed to the same URL.

I have also tried logging in using a different browser (I use 4, for different things usually). In Chrome, which can have no cache or cookies because I had never tried to access the site admin for this site using Chrome before, I got this message:

“The https://www.afpocalpe.com page isn’t working
https://www.afpocalpe.com is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500″

(The actual site is still working fine, including the WordPress posts. It’s only the site admin that fails as soon as I log in. (I’ve tried logging out and in.))

Can you help?

You can login this url?

https://www.afpocalpe.com/updates/wp-login.php

I tried again for you, Rajan V. I re-entered my password and it was accepted. I was directed to a blank page (in Firefox, with no system error flagged) and the URL https://www.afpocalpe.com/updates/wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fupdates%2Fwp-admin%2F

Just like before. (In Chrome, the system error 500 was flagged, as I was sent to the same URL.)

May i know your previous version of WordPress

If you are updating from version 2.7 or higher, you can use the automatic updater:

Open wp-admin/update-core.php in your browser and follow the instructions.

And also get backup the existing wp-includes folder and replace with fresh one which is get it from online

I think the previous version of WordPress on this site was 4.3.

I began yesterday morning by using the automatic updater. It ran fine until it reached upgrade.php, then halted with a system error.

As I have already mentioned. this morning (24 hours after the automatic updating failure) I did a manual update, following to the letter the online instructions. This involved, among other things, deleting the existing wp-includes folder and uploading the brand-new one from the current WordPress download.

I really need help from someone who knows why the automatic update failed when it reached upgrade.php. And why upgrade.php is still causing a system error.

For some reason it automatically started working again a few hours later. No clue as to why though.

Hey @drwcb, did you manage to figure out what happened here? I’ve run into the very same problem as you after trying the auto upgrade this evening. My site is loading fine but when I browse to wp-admin I’m getting that same /upgrade.php redirect with the message <site> is currently unable to handle this request.

So I can’t even dig around within the dashboard or Customise sections to try to fix it.

Looking at the logs I can see that when I try to browse to any page behind wp-admin I get a 302 redirect response, and am redirected to

GET /wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwordpress%2Fwp-admin%2F HTTP/1.1″ 500

So I’m getting a 500 server error for whatever reason as a result of trying this upgrade.

Browsing other forums I saw it mentioned that one should delete the .maintenance file after a failed upgrade. But I can’t see any such file.

Apologies for jumping on your thread but it sounds like I’m having the very same problem and I’m wondering what to do from here…

Hi geoid. It turned out in the case of this particular Web site that it was using a version of PHP (5.2) that WordPress no longer supports. Upgrading the PHP solved the issue as far as the Site Admin was concerned.

Unfortunately, this caused the pages with WordPress posts to begin generating 500 errors. It took some time to sort this out, but the problem was eventually traced to a php.ini file which had been uploaded to the Web site to sort out a PHP problem a year or so back. Removing that fixed (and uneditable) php.ini meant that the site reverted to the server’s php.ini for later versions of PHP, so now everything is running as it should.

I have no idea if any of this will help you — but I do hope so!

@geoid,
@marleendh,

If the troubleshooting already posted made no difference for you, then, as per the Forum Welcome, please post your own topic.

How I solved my WordPress websites update problem in 2 Minutes

upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F
After wordpress update I was redirected to following URL and Blank Page

Here is the step by step EASY process How I solved my problem very easily
1. Open File manager of your webhosting account
2. Rename Plugin File to Plugin123
3. Visit your website /wp-admin page

Your browser will automatically redirected to this page

Click on the update wordpress Database Page and once the database is full updated go back to File manager and rename your plugin folder.

Alternative Method to Solve upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F method

Get the latest WordPress zip (or tar.gz) file.
Unpack the zip file that you downloaded.
Deactivate plugins.
Delete the old wp-includes and wp-admin directories on your web host (through your FTP or shell access).
Using FTP or your shell access, upload the new wp-includes and wp-admin directories to your web host, in place of the previously deleted directories.
Upload the individual files from the new wp-content folder to your existing wp-content folder, overwriting existing files. Do NOT delete your existing wp-content folder. Do NOT delete any files or folders in your existing wp-content directory (except for the one being overwritten by new files).
Upload all new loose files from the root directory of the new version to your existing wordpress root directory.

https://www.vashistha.in/2016/12/problem-solved-upgradephpwphttpreferer2.html