Title: Plugin update crashed site
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Plugin update crashed site

 *  [altmanncarol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/altmanncarol/)
 * (@altmanncarol)
 * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-crashed-site/)
 * Today I updated the ithemes security plugin and it created havoc.
    First, I could
   no longer access my dashboard. Worse, it brought my entire site down (apart from
   the front page). Every other post and page returned a 404 error. Needless to 
   say, panic set in. Fortunately I found some help on how to undo this damage. 
   1. Delete the plugin via cpanel (as you can’t access the dashboard, remember!).
   This allowed me to again access the dashboard directly. 2. Delete the .htaccess
   file that sometimes still hides in cpanel even if you have deleted the plugin.
   3. Most importantly: reset the permalinks. You do this by accessing the Dashboard-
   Settings – Permalinks and simply pressing the “Save Changes” button. I did not
   actually touch anything else, just the ‘save changes’ and all of my pages were
   live again. I had no problems with the Better WP Security plugin but this thing
   is a nightmare. Why change something when it is working well???
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/)

The topic ‘Plugin update crashed site’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/better-wp-security/assets/icon.svg?rev=3529351)
 * [Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/reviews/)

## Tags

 * [404 errors](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/404-errors/)
 * [can't access dashboard](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/cant-access-dashboard/)
 * [ithemes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/ithemes/)
 * [site crashes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/site-crashes/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [altmanncarol](https://wordpress.org/support/users/altmanncarol/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-update-crashed-site/)
 * Status: not resolved