iThemes – cannot change user id 1 or load wp login page

I have iThemes and BPS installed on a fresh WP install. By installing BPS first, followed by iThemes, I seem to be able to get BPS to show as running correctly – previously I had problems with .htaccess.

On going through all the recommendations for iThemes, I’m unable to change the user id 1 – each time I try it says ‘The new admin username you entered is invalid or WordPress could not change the user id or username.’ I think it might be because I have a ‘#’ in my username, but the use of special characters doesn’t seem to have been an issue on another install of WP running iThemes. Does anyone have any ideas or must I delete this user/remove the ‘#’ and try again?

Also, on this and the other WP install I have, I can’t access the WP login screen unless I rename the better-wp-security directory. Once in, I can change the folder back and it all seems to work fine, but obviously this isn’t ideal.

Lastly, I did change the wp-content directory name during the Softaculous install, but the directory still appears but only contains ‘bps-backup’ – which is also showing in my new content directory created at install.

It’s all a bit messy, so if anyone can help me straighten this out, I’d really appreciate it.

Cheers!!