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Hi @madalinaruzsa

If I understand correctly, you’re asking me to share my admin credentials so you can gain access to the website’s admin panel and possibly make changes, yes?

Hi, @madalinaruzsa

It is surely because honestly I do not recall installing it… from vague memory I think WP Security was proposed to me years ago while in my admin panel and I never paid anything. Anyway, I have decided to stop using it and installed another but less intrusive free security plugin that just has a firewall. Everything still works for my PMS. I’ve attempted to disable the plugin I installed to forcefully redirect WP logins to PMS login but that made PMS login impossible again. It always sends to math challenge question after Captcha and loops indefinitely without login working. The similar option available directly on PMS (to redirect WP login) does not work on my installation so I had to reactivate the other plugin.

Hi @madalinaruzsa,

Last evening I managed to slowly make some headway when I realised that the Captchas were the ones of WP security and not of PMS. I deactivated the WP ones and activated the PMS ones with my site keys. Done that, PMS login did not simply “reset” like before but now forcefully redirected to WordPress login and two-step authentication was mandatory even if disabled in all possible settings, creating an unending “WP login loop”.

It was possible to break that loop by simply ignoring subsequent two-step WP login requests by going back to a previous page, but for some reason all users with access to the site’s WP panel (like authors) were still connected and trying to access the staging site I had made but since deleted. So it’s like something in my self-hosted WP installation is bugged. In some occasions, PMS login wouldn’t redirect to WP login but got “hanged” in a completely white screen. Refreshing the page or going back redirected to the user’s PMS account and login was active!

After many hours of fiddling with security and settings, trying to disable two-step and WP login altogether to no change (probably because these were bugged in retaining the settings of the no longer existant staging site), I was able to finally “break the WP login cycle” by adding a plugin that forcefully redirects the WP login php address to the PMS login page instead. The PMS login then finally worked normally. Two outside users that I personally know were able to confirm that login now works normally for them also.

I think the whole problem started when the staging to production operation was performed as some parts of the website retained their staging site hyperlinks instead of going back to normal. Something must still be “stuck” halfway between the two since it’s still trying to redirect users with authorization to the non-existant staging site panel. I would therefore not recommend that your plugin be installed and set-up on a staging site then transferred into production.

Anyway, even though the PMS login now works, I realise that the real problem itself is probably not fixed and I only found a workaround. But after the last 4 days spent entirely trying to fix this issue, I am tired and will be taking a break for now. Still, feel free to respond with suggestions as to what to do next, knowing what I told you in this post.

Hi @madalinaruzsa,

All of my plugins are up to date at time of writing but many are already deactivated. I’ll however list all of them here just to be sure;

• (deactivated) Advanced Ads Version 1.51.0 | By Advanced Ads GmbH
• Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection Version 5.3.1 | By Automattic – Anti-spam Team 
• All In One WP Security Version 5.2.7 | By All In One WP Security & Firewall Team
• AMP Version Version 2.5.2 | By AMP Project Contributors 
• Classic Editor Version 1.6.3 | By WordPress Contributors
• CoBlocks Version 3.1.5 | By GoDaddy 
• (deactivated) Crowdsignal Forms Version 1.7.0 | By Automattic
• (deactivated) Crowdsignal Polls & Ratings Version 3.1.1 | By Automattic, Inc.
• Fixed Widget Version 6.2.3 | By Advanced Ads
• Gutenberg Version 17.7.0 | By Gutenberg Team | Visit plugin site
• Jetpack By Automattic
• Jetpack Boost Version 3.0.2 | By Automattic – Jetpack Site Speed team
• Layout Grid Version 1.8.4 | By Automattic 
• Page Optimize Version 0.5.5 | By Automattic 
• Paid Member Subscriptions Version 2.11.3 | By Cozmoslabs
• Polylang Version 3.5.4 | By WP SYNTEX 
• (deactivated) Popup Maker Version 1.18.2 | By Popup Maker
• Smart Copy Protect Version 1.1 | By Sumon Hasan
• Smooth Scroll Up Version 1.2 | By Konstantinos Kouratoras
• WordPress.com Editing Toolkit Version 4.14642 | By Automattic
• WPCode Lite Version 2.1.9 | By WPCode 
• WPForms Lite Version 1.8.6.4 | By WPForms

I’ve already tried disabling some of them and tested login after each deactivation to no effect. By the way, all of my subscribers are experiencing this issue too but I think you knew that fact already.

Anyway, if it can help diagnose, I had installed PMS while on a staging site and transfered to production site. The staging site has been disabled afterwards. All of my links are correct in settings, payments and registering works fine on my production site, it’s just the login page that doesn’t work and reloads like if nothing happens.

Also, I’ve tried using a login redirect after successful login and again no change as the problem persists. So I doubt very much that it’s a cache issue but as developer you may know best.