How do I revert to "default" theme?

Go to the Appearance section of your admin panel.

There is no appearance section in my admin panel. I am assuming you mean wp-admin, right?

It sounds like your friend didn’t set your user account as an administrator. In short, your friend kept the keys when he left.

Fortunately, it’s fixable, but it’s going to require some “hacking.”

Access your database via phpMyAdmin (most hosting providers offer this in their control panel), go to the wp_users table and find the row for your user_login . Note the ID of this row. Now, go to the wp_usermeta table and find the wp_capabilities row for your user_id . Set the value of this row to a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}

I am using Godaddy. When I go to the hosting control center and select “databases”, the only option there is MySQL. I click on that and I see a link titled “ManageviaPHPmyAdmin”. I click on that and it asks for a username and a password. I don’t know what the username is, but I can reset the password, which I did. On the page where I reset the password, it gives a the following for the username: tra1020704310547. I tried entering that as the username with the new password, but it still doesn’t work.

I have no clue what to do at this point, aside from tracking down my friend and breaking his nose.

I don’t know either, you’ll have to contact GoDaddy’s support department.

OK, now I’ve really screwed something up. I tried to access my website and it says “Error establishing a database connection”. What did I do? HELP!

I bet you changed the database’s password when you reset it as mentioned in your reply above. You’ll have to edit the wp-config.php file and change the password there to the new one.

OK, I did and it is back up and running now. Thanks! You are a lifesaver!

Any chance I can just give you my login info and let you fix things?

OK, I changed the language of the database on the login page and I gained access. I follwed your instructions, and now I see all of the other options, including the “Appearance” tab!

Awesome!

Now, how do I enable blog comments?

You can, but I do charge for off-forum support and consulting. If you’re interested, contact me:

https://www.macmanx.com/contact/

If not, we can certainly continue to work on it here, but you’ll need to contact GD’s support to point you in the right direction, or wait for a forum member here who’s familiar with GD’s control panel.

I got into the database and I am now an admin, able to login with full capabilities. Now I need to know where to go and what to do to try and get my blog comments working. Suggestions?

Also, how do I make it so he has absolutely no access?

Do the comments work if you switch to the Default theme?

You can lock him out by simply deleting his user account from the Users section of the admin panel.

I don’t see where it says switch to default theme. I see that it has the current theme I am using, “Serenity Child Theme 1.0”, and it has two other available themes, Genesis and Twenty Ten. When I preview Twenty Ten, it of course completely changes the look of my site, but I do see where comments are enabled on the blog. So, now what?

Sorry about that, lateness makes my mind all fuzzy. Twenty Ten is the default theme. Activate that and make sure that the comments work correctly.

They do work correctly, but the layout and design of my site is changed completely. Is there a way to keep my current look and layout?