I'm working on a live website, updated a plugin and got the dreaded White Screen of Death. I know exactly how to resolve the problem; simply deactivate or delete the plugin I upgraded.
The problem is I cant access the WordPress Dashboard to deactivate or delete the plugin. The WSD occurs in /wp-admin aswell. To make things worse the owner doesn't know their web server login credentials so I cannot just FTP or CPanel in and delete the plugin that way.
Is there a way you know of to overcome the WSD that doesn't require web server access?
I'm working on a live website, updated a plugin and got the dreaded White Screen of Death. I know exactly how to resolve the problem; simply deactivate or delete the plugin I upgraded.
The problem is I cant access the WordPress Dashboard to deactivate or delete the plugin. The WSD occurs in /wp-admin aswell. To make things worse the owner doesn't know their web server login credentials so I cannot just FTP or CPanel in and delete the plugin that way.
Is there a way you know of to overcome the WSD that doesn't require web server access?
Share Improve this question edited Feb 22, 2022 at 19:27 fuxia♦ 107k38 gold badges255 silver badges459 bronze badges asked Feb 12, 2022 at 1:44 sazrsazr 3572 gold badges7 silver badges14 bronze badges 3- Tell your client to contact the host, or just use the forgot your password option at the hosts login. Then from there you can get or set an sftp user and once your on the server disable the plug-in how you said. It’s not your fault a plug-in update killed their site if they didn’t give you any way to create a dev site and test the update first. – Ben HartLenn Commented Feb 12, 2022 at 2:06
- 1 As an aside, I would prioritise regaining CPanel/FTP access, even if you resolve this situation without it. Unless the client can regain access they should know that your ability to work as a developer is blocked and you're unable to work, WSOD or no WSOD. – Tom J Nowell ♦ Commented Feb 12, 2022 at 2:06
- This isn't intended as an "I told you so"...whenever I'm working on a new environment I make sure I have all credentials before I start. Then backup, then start working. There are never enough backups. If you do get access, let me know. If I can help I'll do what I can to get the site running again as fast as possible. – rudtek Commented Feb 12, 2022 at 5:57
1 Answer
Reset to default 0No, without access to WP Admin you would need to rename the folder, but as you have no access to the filesystem this option is not feasible either.
The only remaining option is to connect to the database directly, assuming you know the login details from wp-config.php and the database is configured to allow this. If you do not know the details or the database is configured to not allow this then this option is not available to you. If it is though, then you can delete the activated plugins options in the options table.
Otherwise, you will need to speak with your host to regain access, no technical avenues exist to recover your site unless you can put PHP files up or modify the filesystem in some way.