Used by around 43.2% of websites, WordPress has been the fastest-growing Content Management System for 12 years.
Its seamless and intuitive dashboard is key to its popularity among website developers, designers, and even those that are relatively new to building a website.
WordPress offers an easy-to-use dashboard that allows effective management of websites and their critical settings. However, there are instances where users can’t login to the WordPress dashboard, like forgotten passwords, incorrect WordPress login URLs, and database connections among others.
Suppose you’re facing issues logging into your WordPress dashboard in this article. In that case, we’ll check several ways to troubleshoot your error and successfully into the WordPress dashboard. Let’s go!
How to Log in to the WordPress Dashboard of your Website
You can access your website’s WordPress dashboard in multiple ways, like logging in through hPanel, subdirectory, domains dashboard, direct URL, or subdomain.
Let’s look at each of them below.
How to Login to the WordPress Dashboard through a Direct Link?
Accessing your WordPress site’s dashboard through a direct URL link is one of the most straightforward ways to log in.
This method requires your WordPress installation process credentials to access the dashboard.
Here are the crucial steps you can follow to access your WordPress dashboard using a direct URL link:
- Go to your browser’s address bar and enter one of the following URLs:
- Once your WordPress login page appears, enter your WordPress credentials, it’s either your email address or username and password.
- Click the ‘Login’ button to view and access your WordPress dashboard.
It’s recommended to tick the Remember Me box while logging in to the dashboard to stay logged in. Doing so saves you from the hassle of manually adding your credentials each time.
How to Login to the WordPress Dashboard through hPanel or cPanel?
Control panels, like cPanel and hPanel, facilitate website and server management and conveniently manage your server’s settings. It’s also where you create or delete email accounts, add and organize files, and manage domains.
Many web hosting companies offer control panels to seamlessly perform website management tasks, including logging in to your WordPress dashboard.
Here are the steps to access your WordPress dashboard using hPanel:
- Navigate to Hosting -> Manage
- If you haven’t installed WordPress yet, go to Website -> Auto Installer, and then click on Select under the WordPress option.
- Click on Dashboard on the left navigation bar of the screen.
- In the upper-right corner, click on Edit website.
On the other hand, here’s how you can do it in cPanel:
- In your cPanel, scroll down and look for the “Software” section.
- Find the software installer that comes with it, usually “Installatron”, and click it.
- Look for the domain name and click the second link on the right side of the thumbnail.
Both these open the WordPress dashboard on a new tab for you to log in. Note that some web hosts customise their control panel themes. Thus, some steps may be different.
How to Login to the WordPress Dashboard through a Domains Dashboard?
Here are the steps to access your WordPress dashboard using the Domains Dashboard.
- Log in to your Domains Dashboard.
- Then, on the Domains Dashboard, select the domain where your site’s WordPress is installed.
- Typically, you can see two views in the Domains Dashboard, the List views and Card views. You need to click on the view icons to switch to the view of your preference.
- Select the domain you wish to modify.
- On the left-hand side of the menu, click on the WordPress button.
- Next, click the Manage Site button on the WordPress page.
This process will let you access your WordPress dashboard and manage it efficiently. Other providers also don’t offer this option or the steps might be slightly different.
How to Login to the WordPress Dashboard through a Subdomain?
One of the simplest ways to log in to your WordPress dashboard besides the direct link is by using a subdomain.
The default URL when you try to access your dashboard using domains must look like the following:
- subdomain.example.com/login
- subdomain.example.com/wp-login.php
How to Login to the WordPress Dashboard through a Subdirectory?
Use one of the following links when logging in to your WordPress dashboard through a subdirectory.
- www.yourdomain.com/subdirectory/login
- www.yourdomain.com/subdirectory/wp-admin.php
Once the login page appears, enter your login credentials to access the WordPress dashboard.
Troubleshooting WordPress Login Page Errors
Below are common errors you may encounter when logging in to the WordPress dashboard. We also included tips on troubleshooting them.
Incorrect WordPress password
The most common reason behind WordPress login errors is the incorrect credentials for logging in.
If your WordPress password and username don’t match, it’ll display an error message shown below:
To troubleshoot this, click the eye icon in the password bar, check the entered password, and try again.
If the issue persists, click the ‘Lost your password?’ button below the login credential box. Then, enter your username or email address so that WordPress sends a password reset link to the entered email address.
Check your inbox and click the link to reset your password. Once done, do a test login and take note of your new password.
Tip: Strong passwords are at least 12 characters long with alphanumeric characters and symbols.
WordPress Login Redirect Loop
Sometimes, users face an issue where WordPress keeps redirecting them to the wp-admin web page even after entering the correct information.
You can fix this issue with the help of one of the following methods:
- Restore the default WordPress .htaccess file.
- Clear the cookies and browser cache.
- Temporarily deactivate the plugins and themes.
Error Establishing the Database Connection
A failed database connection is another common WordPress login error. It usually happens when your WordPress site fails to access and restore information from its database. The best way to fix this is to access the wp-config.php file from the hosting manager to sync database credentials.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Access your hosting control panel.
- Once in, look for “File Manager” and click it.
- Then, find the public_html directory and double-click.
- Now, look for wp-config.php and right-click.
- Click “View” or “Edit”. It opens a new tab where you can the database settings. Refer to the image below and take note of the items boxed.
- Go back to the control panel home page.
- Look for MySQL® Databases and click it.
- Scroll down to Current Databases and check if the DB_NAME and DB_USER matches. Refer to the image below:
- Scroll down to Current Users and click Change Password on the right side of the page.
- Sync the password in the wp-config.php by copying and saving the password.
- Finally, click Change Password.
It’s required to repair your database connection, or create a new one, to resolve this type of login error.
WordPress Login Disabled
One of the common problems that WordPress users may encounter is being locked out of their dashboard after multiple failed login attempts. This can happen when someone tries to guess your password or when you forget your login credentials and incorrectly enter them multiple times. WordPress has a security feature that blocks further login attempts from a specific IP address or username after a certain number of tries. This prevents brute force attacks and unauthorised access to your website.
While the intention is good, this can also be frustrating if you own the website and you need to regain access to your dashboard. Fortunately, there are some ways to handle this situation:
- Wait for the lockout period to expire. Depending on how your WordPress site is configured, you may have to wait for 20 minutes or more before you can try logging in again. This is the simplest solution but it may not be ideal if you need immediate access.
- Reset your password with phpMyAdmin or WP-CLI. If you have access to your website’s database, you can use phpMyAdmin or WP-CLI tools to reset your password manually. You will need to locate the wp_users table in your database and edit the row corresponding to your username. You will need to enter a new password hashed with MD5 encryption.
- Create a new user with administrator privileges. Another way to access your WordPress admin area is to create a new user account with administrator role using phpMyAdmin or WP-CLI tools. You will need to insert a new row into the wp_users table with a unique username, email address and password (hashed with MD5). You will also need to insert another row into the wp_usermeta table with the user ID and meta_key as wp_capabilities and meta_value as a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;b:1;}.
- Disable your security plugins. If you have installed any security plugins that limit login attempts, such as Limit Login Attempts Reloaded, you can disable them temporarily by renaming their folders via FTP or File Manager. This will deactivate them and allow you to log in normally. Once you have logged in, you can rename them back and reactivate them.
Locked Out of WordPress
You can get locked out of your WordPress dashboard because of the following errors:
- Parse error (syntax error): The parse error indicates that your PHP code consists of incorrect formats. You can use an FTP client to check your PHP code and find extra or missing characters if any.
- White screen of death: This error displays a blank page or an invalid message to the users and WordPress web administrators and is typically caused by memory limit issues or PHP. You can troubleshoot it by disabling plugins, increasing the WordPress site’s memory limit, and applying the default theme settings.
- Issues with themes or plugins: Outdated or corrupted plugins and themes prevent users from accessing and logging into their WordPress dashboard. Hence, fixing the corrupted .htaccess file is essential to solving this issue.
Implementing at least one of these methods will help you regain access to your website dashboard.
How to Customize Your WordPress Login Page?
A custom login page brings several benefits to your WordPress website, right from allowing you to secure your login URL to managing the user permission roles.
Here, we’ll discuss a few ways to set up your WordPress credentials, a language selector on the login page, and secure your WordPress login page URL.
How Can You Set up Custom WordPress Login Credentials?
One of the best practices for securing a WordPress website is to assign different login credentials to each user. Sharing the same username and password among multiple users can expose the website to various cyberattacks and breaches.
If a hacker manages to compromise one account, they can potentially access and damage the entire website. Therefore, it is advisable to create a unique WordPress username and password for every user, so that the impact of a hacking incident can be minimized and isolated.
Here are steps to create custom WordPress login information for each user:
- Open your site’s WordPress dashboard, then open the Users tab.
- Click the Add New button and fill in the required information, including Email and Username.
- Select a specific role, like Administrator, depending on the user’s access level.
- You can leave the ‘Skip Confirmation Email’ box unchecked.
- Click on the Add New User button.
The new user will receive an email to set up their account’s new password and complete the registration process.
How to Set up a Language Selector on the Login Page
If your site’s WordPress users speak different global languages, enable the language selector on the WordPress login page. However, you must note that this option is only available on WordPress 5.9 or higher.
For this, you must first install the desired languages in the WordPress admin dashboard panel. Here are the required steps for this:
- Navigate to Settings -> General
- Find the Site Language menu
- Click on the drop-down menu and choose the particular language you want to install.
- Click on the Save Changes button.
Once you complete this, when users try to access the login page, a drop-down menu with the list of languages will appear below the login credentials section.
How Can You Secure the WordPress Login URL Using a Plugin?
WordPress always uses the exact same login page URL by default.
Luckily, you can customize this URL to secure your WordPress website. For example, you can use a WordPress plugin, like WPS Hide Login.
Here are the steps to secure your WordPress login URL using the WPS Hide Login:
- Go to the WordPress dashboard and Plugins -> Add New.
- Search for the WPS Hide Login plugin, click on the Install Now button, and then on Activate.
- Head to Settings -> WPS Hide Login.
- Enter the WordPress login URL in the relevant field and click the Save Changes button.
This will protect your WordPress site URL and secure your business.
Conclusion
Seamlessly accessing your WordPress dashboard and admin page is critical to managing your site’s content and customizing or creating a new one.
Despite how good WordPress is as a CMS, you can still face difficulties logging in to your WordPress dashboard. We hope that by writing this blog, you find help in troubleshooting the errors we’ve covered and successfully log in to your WordPress dashboard again.
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How to Log In to your WordPress Dashboard FAQs
How can I log in to my WordPress dashboard without a password?
To set up and use passwordless authentication for your WordPress website, you can use plugins like Passwordless Login. Once you activate this plugin, you can go to Users -> Passwordless Login, copy the login shortcode, and create a new login page to paste that shortcode and test it.
How can I access my WordPress dashboard?
You can access your WordPress dashboard by adding /wp-login.php or /wp-admin at the end of your website’s URL.
For instance, if your website link is www.example.com, you can access it via www.example.com/wp-admin or www.example.com/wp-login.php and easily access your dashboard’s login page.
What is the WordPress site’s default username and password?
The default WordPress login credentials for WordPress are ‘password’ for the password and ‘username’ for the username. Likewise, ‘admin’ is the default username for administrators.
What should I do if I forget my login information?
You need to click the “Lost your password?” text and closely follow the prompts to reset your password.
If you still can’t access your account, you can contact your web hosting provider or follow the WordPress account recovery procedure.
How can I change my login information?
You can change your account’s login information by navigating to the Users section on the WordPress dashboard and editing your user’s profile. After that, you can also modify your password, username, and email address.
How to customize my WordPress login page?
One of the ways to personalize and secure your business website is to modify the appearance and functionality of your WordPress login page. You can do this by using a WordPress plugin that allows you to change the logo, background, colors, fonts, and other elements of the login page. Alternatively, you can edit the login page template files in your theme’s folder and add your own custom code. This will help you create a unique and consistent look for your website and prevent unauthorized access.
What is the WordPress admin login URL?
The WordPress admin login URL is a link to access your WordPress site’s login page. The default login page URL is www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
