Yet ANOTHER post about 3.9 – Doesn't work, need help!

Try:
– switching to the default theme by renaming your current theme’s folder inside wp-content/themes and adding “-old” to the end of the folder name using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.

– resetting the plugins folder by FTP or phpMyAdmin.

– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder and the wp-config.php & root .htaccess files – from a fresh download of WordPress. Make sure that you delete the old copies of files & folder before uploading the new ones.

– running the upgrade manually via wp-admin/upgrade.php

Ok, I just stated that my dashboard doesn’t open. The only page that will is statistics. How am I going to change the theme?

Please try reading my post above. None of the suggestions made require you to login to your WordPress dashboard.

I really wish I could show a screenshot so you can see what I’m talking about because either I’m not explaining it well enough or you’re not understanding it.

If I knew anything about coding, I wouldn’t be on this forum. If I knew what a freaking file transfer protocol was, I wouldn’t be on this forum. This is gibberish to me.

Do you know how to use FTP?

No, I don’t, at all.

[ No bumping please. ]

You really do need to learn how to use FTP. It’s an essential skill for any site owner. As it stands, there is nothing else here that we can suggest. If you cannot manage this yourself, you may want to consider hiring someone to look into this for you.

So, I don’t really understand that. It’s WordPress’ problem because of their upgrade and I’m the one that’s supposed to fix it? Classic run away mentality. Thanks for your help.

It is not a WordPress “problem”. Seems like something interrupted your upgrade and the file transfer was not fully complete. You now have to correct this. There is absolutely nothing we can do from here.

@ilivenolye The underlying problem here is that your upgrade was interrupted somehow and is now incomplete. The files did not all get updated.

What you need to do is a manual update to fix all your files and get them to the latest versions. Then your site will work again.

OK @esmi, but it seems like a lot of other people have been having this same non-Wordpress problem .Like I said classic run away mentality.

@samuel, the problem is that I don’t know how to do a manual update. When I decided to do this blog, the hosting was paid for by a company. All I did was buy the domain, choose the theme, and have been blogging ever since. So, I have no idea where to go to manually update anything.

Well now you get to learn more about servers, file transfers, and how to manually upgrade a WordPress site! And no, I’m not being sarcastic – this is a great way to learn more about the underlying infrastructure that makes your site run – a bit like learning more about how a combustion engine works so you can better diagnose why your car might be running rough. You don’t have to know everything, but having some idea is very useful the next time something goes a bit “off” because you’ll be able to more confidently troubleshoot the issue and get back to blogging!

Okay the first thing you’ll want to do is contact your host about their recommended way of accessing your server’s file system. Some hosts provide a control panel, others let you access it through FTP/SFTP.

Next, download the latest WordPress files from this site and unzip it (right click the zip file and select “Extract All”).

Then access your server’s file system (see our first step about contacting your host) and carefully copy the newly downloaded wordpress files and replace the old ones on the server – but with two exceptions. DO NOT replace the wp-config.php file or the wp-content folder.

You should now be able to point your browser at your site and be able to log in as normal.

I’m 100% behind what @bemdesign said. We are not trying to fob you off or be deliberately technical about this. These are skills that you really do need if you want to run your own site – whether that’s using WordPress or some other content management system. The only way to avoid it is to pay someone else to do all of the work for you.

I’m on a Mac. Do these same directions work there as well because when I right click, I don’t see “extract all.”

Thanks @esmi and @bemdesign. I apologize for being a b*tch. I just get frustrated when I don’t understand how to do something!

OK, I had to upload twice but it worked. Do I need to change, delete, or update any of the plug ins?