petejs

My goal was to upgrade WP and theme, as well as convert server to SSL.
To prepare for all that I decided to rename database name as well as change prefix. So I tried too much at one go. :>)

Next time I would do following:
0. decide on another database name and user. User with correct permissions and a crazy weird password (for protection). create DB and user.
1. Install Wordfence assistant plugin.
2. Disable and empty wordfence cache or other caching plugins (save .htaccess so you can replant it). THEN disable wordfence. Test test you still can access WP.
3. of course do backups, I would take a snapshot as well as mysql export file(and a copy of mysql file).
4. change WP settings DB NAME, DB USER and Password to new settings.
5. import mysql file into new database.
6. empty cache in your browser ( I had so many weird things, not all for them with wordfence. (By the way I think wordfence is a solid product, I am really happy with it).
7. I did not try to change prefix, somehow that made it more complex so I cannot give you any advice on that, in my case changing database name is actually quite sufficient.
8. I hade couple of times some weird redirects and locking, must have been WP (?) because at that time wordfence was already disabled.
9. if new settings work, enable wordfence, test, enable caching.

I hope this helps.

Actually I think my problem has to do with following:
I had 4.6 version of php’s and loaded database from earlier version.

First try to go to wp=admin I got a message that DB needs updating. SO I was able to log in but I cannot access admin console at all.