Hi @dickraney, I’m sorry to hear that!
It’s unusual that it’s suddenly started happening, and that it appears like your login page (above) is the default with no JavaScript errors to suggest a conflict. There could be a change in server configuration that’s now affecting “How does Wordfence detect IPs” in Wordfence > All Options, or if you’ve recently installed another plugin that affects the login flow (CAPTCHA, membership, role editors, etc.)
When you’re able to access the site with Wordfence enabled but the WAF off, your Live Traffic page should show why the users logging in are being blocked. Check the reason after expanding a blocked event with the eye icon in the corner. You can filter Live Traffic by “Blocked” so it’s easier to find. You may find a specific firewall rule or Wordfence setting stated here after expanding the entry. The reason is shown in red text.
Feel free to paste that reason here if you’re unable to manually allowlist it successfully using the “ADD PARAM TO FIREWALL ALLOWLIST” button on the Live Traffic page.
If the problem is still ongoing after seeing the reason, before reenabling the WAF, you can visit the Wordfence > Tools > Diagnostics page and send the output to us at wftest @ wordfence . com. Click on “Send Report by Email”. Please add your forum username where indicated and respond here after you have sent it.
NOTE: It should look as follows – Screenshot of Tools > Diagnostic > Send by Email
Many thanks,
Peter.
Live Traffic doesn’t show the blocked logins. Seems like the block happens before anything else. As I said, we don’t get any kind of response from the browser either.
I just sent the diagnostics info via email as requested.
Hi @dickraney, thanks for sending that over!
It appears everything like IP detection, connectivity in/out, and other things that could usually go wrong are looking normal. I see the plugin is running in basic protection, which I may expect after you’ve had to use Wordfence Assistant.
Wordfence will log all blocks if it’s making them, so it sounds like the login flow is actually being broken by something after submit. I’d first try clearing any caches you have for your site through your hosting control panel, temporarily disabling/clearing caching plugins on the site itself, and trying a private/incognito browser window so local caching isn’t an issue either.
It’s advisable when everything else has been exhausted to disable all plugins except for Wordfence, and switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-Five. If logins work fine, reenable everything else one-by-one until the issue returns.
If disabling all other plugins doesn’t work either, it might be a good idea to enable PHP error logging with WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG in your wp-config.php file, then try to log in again. Any fatal errors that show up might point to a cause. Feel free to show that to us if it looks like a Wordfence file is failing.
Thanks again,
Peter.
I tried everything. Changed to default theme, disabled plugins including cache and optimization, ran debug and still there was no logging of why login was being blocked. But deactivating Wordfence worked. Finally I just decided I had to try another plugin which is working so far. Thanks anyway for the suggestions.
No worries @dickraney, I’m sorry to hear that but I appreciate the update. If you do see debug information at any point that may assist us in figuring out what might be causing Wordfence to fail then we’ll be happy to look into it again.
Thanks,
Peter.
