Admin user doesn’t have admin controls or dashboard

  • funbooker

    (@funbooker)


    1 year ago

    Last week I had to figure out how to migrate a site to a new server. Thanks to those who offered suggestions.

    New week, new questions. This is a problem left over from the same site on the earlier server. Somehow, when the old site got working on the new server, the old problem came back. The user has a “0” in the user_status field. user_meta shows wp_capabilities a:1:{s:13:”administrator”;s:1:”1″;} and wp_user_level “10”. I’ve played around with wp_capabilities, trying some things I found in a search. I also created a new user in phpmyadmin with different log in credentials and password but the same user_status and wp_user_level. When I log into that user I see the user name on the right but no drop down with Dashboard on the left. I have deleted a couple unused themes and plugins

    When I check the sit with WP Toolbox in cPanel, I get no errors. I feel like I’ve tried all the easy stuff. It’s time for some next level solutions.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Marcelo R. Berwanger

    (@mrberwanger)

    1 year ago

    Hi @funbooker ,

    It sounds like you’ve already done a thorough job troubleshooting—especially with manually inspecting wp_capabilities and even creating a new user. Since the issue persists even with a new admin account, here are a few next-level steps you can try:

    Temporarily disable all plugins

    There could be a plugin or theme interfering with admin capabilities or UI rendering.

    Force Administrator role via code

      To be absolutely sure the user has the correct role, add the following snippet temporarily to your theme’s functions.php:

      add_action('init', function() {
          $user = get_user_by('login', 'yourusername'); // replace with actual username
          if ($user) {
              $user->set_role('administrator');
          }
      });

      Double-check usermeta entries

      Confirm the correct capability format. Run this in your database (adjusting for your table prefix and user ID):

      SELECT * FROM wp_usermeta WHERE user_id = X AND meta_key = 'wp_capabilities';

      The value should ideally look like this:

      a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}

      If it’s different, you can try update it with:

      UPDATE wp_usermeta SET meta_value = 'a:1:{s:13:"administrator";b:1;}' WHERE user_id = X AND meta_key = 'wp_capabilities';

      Reinstall Core WordPress Files

      If none of the above helps, try re-uploading the core WordPress files:

      • Download a fresh copy from ww.wp.xz.cn.
      • Upload and replace everything except wp-content and wp-config.php.

      Let us know what you discover after these steps. If the problem persists, I’d be happy to help you dig deeper.

      Good luck!

      Thread Starter funbooker

      (@funbooker)

      1 year ago

      Sadly, I did all that but did it all over again at your suggestion. One thing that might be helpful to understanding this problem is that it happened to this site when it was on another server that failed. I was unable to access the old server to transfer the site so I created a new site on a new server. I imported the db data from a .sql backup. If the site had been hacked and the db corrupted, the backup was from a date long after the hack so if there’s some kind of malicious code in the db causing this problem in the old db, it was in the .sql backup.

      I installed wp from the wp toolkit in cpanel. No problems. I had an admin with all admin controls. I imported the .sql backup. I deleted the duplicate tables that were installed with wp and kept the ones from the .sql backup. I renamed the folders wp_admin, content and includes in the new site. I pulled in copies of those three directories from a backup of the old server. When this was done, I had my site back with only one user, admin. When I logged in, I got the same problem I had with the old server, no admin console.

      I can see admin logged in up in the right hand corner. I have performed repairs on all tables, no indication there were any problems to be repaired.

      One thing that might mean something to someone who knows more than me, when I try to go to /wp-admin/options.php I get an error saying I don’t have adequate permissions. All the .php files in the directories had 644 permissions. So my one user admin, that has user_status “0”, is denied access to this file due to a permission problem, or at least it looks that way.

      Thanks for any help you may provide.

    Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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