thanks. super helpful. next time I will look at those links.
i am on dreamhost. they offer no wp support, but I did notice that my sites are split on 2 servers. i could ask them to consolidate everything onto one.
I would if I hadn’t overwritten it with a clean index.php when I saw the error. Just reinstalled the wp-admin and includes folders. That seemed to do the trick, but it doesn’t solve the “repeat” thing.
I am installing the Disable WordPress Core Update plugin and see if that keeps it under control for now. I prefer to update manually anyway. Thanks Anyway!