There are few situations more alarming than being locked out of your ain WordPress admin dashboard. If yous've encountered a message reading "Sorry, y'all are not allowed to admission this page" when trying to log in, you know the feeling start manus.

Fortunately, there are several solutions at your disposal for troubleshooting this error. With a niggling patience, you can clear upwards the mistake and go dorsum to managing your WordPress site in no fourth dimension.

In this post, nosotros'll dig into the "Sorry, you lot are non allowed to access this folio" error and what causes it to occur. Then we'll walk you through the many potential solutions to help you find the 1 that addresses your specific state of affairs.

Let's jump correct in!

Agreement the "Sad, Y'all Are Not Allowed to Access This Page" Fault

Although we're referring to it as an "error" for the purposes of this mail, the "Pitiful, you are not allowed to admission this page" message in WordPress is meant to exist a helpful security measure.

Ultimately, seeing this notification merely means there's a permissions setting that'southward blocking you lot from a certain area.

This becomes a trouble when you're locked out of a office of your site that y'all should have permission to enter which, as an Administrator, is anywhere on the backend. When this situation arises, information technology is oftentimes following a recent update to a theme, plugin, or WordPress cadre.

You lot may run across the "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page" message for a variety of reasons. Information technology might be that WordPress doesn't recognize you equally an Ambassador. In other situations, the information contained in your site's core code or in a theme or plugin may not lucifer what's in your database.

Additional causes include wrong information in your wp-config.php file or a site that's running an outdated version of PHP. Any the source, this error may prevent you from accessing the entire admin surface area or just a portion of it.

Since it'due south probable that y'all will not be able to admission key settings via the dashboard, you'll need to apply File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or phpMyAdmin to resolve this issue. Make sure to back up your site and brush up on using these platforms before you lot dive into the troubleshooting process.

The most frustrating affair most encountering the "Sorry, you lot are non allowed to admission this page" notification is that it can be hard to pin down which of its causes are at play. Fortunately, there are many solutions you lot tin exam out to find the root of the problem.

How to Fix the "Sorry, You Are Not Allowed to Access This Page" Error in WordPress (eleven Potential Solutions)

Due to its many possible causes, the "Sorry, y'all are not allowed to access this page" fault takes quite a bit of patience to resolve. This long list of solutions may exist intimidating but information technology also covers a diversity of situations to assistance you lot detect the right one for your site.

1. Restore a Previous Version of Your Site

The simplest and often the fastest way to become dorsum into your WordPress dashboard is to restore your site to an earlier version. A recent change, such as an update, might exist the crusade of the mistake you're seeing. Undoing your latest modification should enable you to access your site again.

Kinsta clients accept information technology easy in this regard. Y'all can restore a WordPress backup in your hosting account with a single click:

Restoring a backup in MyKinsta
Restoring a backup in MyKinsta

The drawback to this solution is that you may lose your recent changes and will have to find a mode to accomplish your goals without causing the same fault over again.

For this reason, you may want to restore your backup to a staging site instead. You can then test different modifications to determine what acquired the trouble. After uncovering the root of the issue, you lot tin undo the troublesome change to regain access to your site.

2. Disable All of Your Plugins

A specific change that may be causing the "Pitiful, you are not immune to access this page" message on your site is the recent addition or upgrade of a plugin. If you suspect that this is the case, your all-time course of activeness is to disable your plugins i by one.

In the issue that you disable a plugin and the message goes away, y'all've establish the source of the problem. You can then troubleshoot the result with that plugin (or practise without information technology, if it's non crucial to your site's functionality).

Of form, if you lot're locked out of your dashboard entirely, this process gets a petty tricky. Y'all'll need to access your site using SFTP via a client such equally FileZilla. Once yous've done so, navigate to wp-content and find the sub-directory labeled plugins:

Disable all plugins by renaming the folder
Disable all plugins past renaming the folder

Enter this folder, and and then rename your most recently-added plugin to something like "plugin-name_old". Go back to your site and check to encounter if the mistake is resolved. If not, change the plugin'southward proper noun back and repeat the process with the next one.

iii. Activate a Default Theme

Notwithstanding some other potential cause of this error is that you've recently updated or installed a theme. Your best bet for resolving this problem is to activate a default WordPress theme such as Xx Twenty or Twenty Nineteen.

To do so without access to your admin area, yous'll need to use FTP again. Connect to your server with FileZilla and and then navigate to wp-content > themes:

Disable your current theme by renaming the folder
Disable your current theme by renaming the binder

The remainder of the process is fairly similar to the one described in a higher place for disabling your plugins.

Rename the folder for your active theme, then return to your site and log in. You should see a notification telling you lot that the active theme is cleaved, and a default theme has been reactivated.

And then you tin troubleshoot the theme. Your site should at least exist accessible, albeit with the wrong theme activated.

4. Make Sure You're an Administrator

Another possibility is that your user office has been inadvertently changed and yous are no longer listed as an Administrator. This is a common trouble with multisite installations. To determine if this is the case, yous'll need to access phpMyAdmin and look for the wp_users tabular array:

The WP users table
The wp_users table in phpMyAdmin

Notice your username and note your ID. Then, navigate to the wp_usermeta table and observe the wp_capabilties row:

The wp_usermeta table in phpMyAdmin
The wp_usermeta tabular array in phpMyAdmin

If you have Administrator privileges, the meta_value in this row will read:

a:ane:{s:13:"administrator";southward:ane:"1";}

If your wp_usermeta tabular array says something else, you tin click on the Edit link and change it. Alternatively, you lot can also create an entirely new Ambassador account from phpMyAdmin. To accept this route, return to the wp_users tabular array and click on the Insert tab at the top of the table:

Change user information in wp_users table
Change user information in wp_users table

And so, fill up in the fields with your new user information. In one case you're done, click on the Go push button and your new user should appear in the tabular array. Next, you'll need to make a note of the ID for this business relationship and head dorsum to the wp_usermeta table.

Click on Insert again, and fill up in the resulting fields with the following information:

  • Unmeta_id: Go out this field blank; it will be filled in automatically for you.
  • User_id: Use the ID from the WP Users table.
  • Meta_key: Set this value every bit "wp_capabilities".
  • Meta_value: Add together the line mentioned above.

Y'all should now be able to use your new credentials to log in to your WordPress admin expanse. Delete your old account or alter its user role dorsum to Administrator from the dashboard and delete the new one instead.

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5. Cheque Your Fault Log to Pinpoint the Cause

A smart style to streamline troubleshooting whatsoever problem on your site is to check your server'due south error log. This may indicate plugin or theme compatibility issues, database errors, or problems with your site's files that are causing the "Sorry, y'all are not allowed to access this page" bulletin to announced.

How you view your server's error log will vary depending on who your hosting provider is. For Kinsta customers, this process is as uncomplicated equally logging into your MyKinsta dashboard. There, select the site that's experiencing problems and navigate to Logs:

MyKinsta logs tab
MyKinsta logs tab

Cull error.log from the drop-down menu. If you meet one of the causes of the warning in your log, so you can go about fixing information technology. Otherwise, y'all'll need to attempt another solution on this list.

6. Ensure That Your Database Prefix Is Correct

Every MySQL database has a prefix. If this 1 listed in your website's files doesn't friction match the one listed in phpMyAdmin, and so you may see the "Deplorable, you are not allowed to access this page" message.

This can occur when migrating your site, including if you've used a local staging site for development and are at present moving to a live server. To check for discrepancies, yous'll need to access your wp-config.php file.

You lot tin do this via SFTP as we've described in previous solutions. In one case you lot're in your wp-config.php file, yous should look for your database's prefix (the default is "wp_"):

Database prefix
Database prefix

So, log in to phpMyAdmin and await at the prefixes for your database's tables. They should match the ones listed in your wp-config.php file, like in the paradigm below:

Prefixes should match those in your wp-config.php file
Prefixes should match those in your wp-config.php file

If they don't match the prefix in your wp-config.php file, then yous'll need to edit it so that they do.

7. Wait for Changes in Your wp-config.php File

On a similar annotation, you should also expect for any changes to your WordPress configuration file. This is especially true if y'all were editing this file shortly before you lot received the "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page" message or if you suspect that your WordPress site has been hacked.

Yous tin access your wp-config.php file using SFTP and expect for anything that seems amiss. All the same, this process is much easier if you have some kind of file integrity monitoring or change detection characteristic in identify.

8. Upgrade to the Latest Version of PHP

If your WordPress site is running an outdated version of PHP, this could exist the source of your troubles. With that said, even if upgrading PHP doesn't solve this issue for you, it should improve your site'due south overall security and functioning.

Earlier y'all kickoff the upgrade process, create a backup of your site. You can do this manually or from your MyKinsta dashboard, even if you're locked out of your admin area. Once you've saved your backup, yous'll desire to test to come across whether your business relationship is compatible with the latest version of PHP. 1 mode to do this is with a WordPress staging site.

Assuming that all goes well, you can run the update. Kinsta customers can easily exercise so past logging into the MyKinsta dashboard and navigating to the relevant site. Then become to Tools > PHP Engine > Alter, and select the newest version from the drop-down carte du jour:

How to upgrade PHP version in MyKinsta
How to upgrade PHP version in MyKinsta

If you're with another provider, you may be able to follow a like process via your ain control panel. It's recommended that you contact your web host for more data.

nine. Evaluate Your File Permissions

Information technology'southward besides possible that your site'due south file permissions have been tampered with. In this case, WordPress may consider you unauthorized to view sure areas of your site, fifty-fifty if you're however listed as an Administrator.

To check your site's file permissions, you'll need to apply SFTP to access your server. One time you lot're logged in, enter the public_html directory and bulk-select wp-admin, wp-content, and wp -includes. Correct-click on these folders and choose File Permissions:

Checking file permissions
Checking file permissions

In the resulting window, make sure the following options are selected:

  • The Numeric Value is set to 755.
  • Recurse into subdirectories is checked.
  • Use to directories only is selected.

Click on OK when you're done. So, highlight all the other files in public_html, right-click on them, and select File Permissions again:

Setting new file permissions
Setting new file permissions

This time, set up the options in the permissions window to the following:

  • The Numeric Value should be 644.
  • Recurse into subdirectories should all the same be checked.
  • Use to files just should exist selected.

So, return to your site to encounter if this solves the trouble and the "Sorry, you are not allowed to admission this page" bulletin is gone.

10. Create a New .htaccess File

If none of the above strategies accept worked, you may need to reset your .htaccess file. To do so, launch FTP and navigate to your public_html binder. You should see your .htaccess file in that location, merely if you don't, follow instructions for showing hidden files in FileZilla.

Side by side, you'll need to rename your existing .htaccess file, like to how we renamed plugin and theme files in earlier solutions. Something recognizable such as .htaccess_original or .htaccess_backup is ideal.

Then, correct-click on the file and select Download. Open the file in a text editor and supervene upon its contents with the post-obit:

          #Begin WordPress  RewriteEngine On  RewriteBase /  RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [50]  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f  RewriteCOnd %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d  RewriteRule . /alphabetize.php [Fifty]  #END WordPress        

Rename this file .htaccess and upload it to your server. If this file was the source of the "Lamentable, you are not allowed to access this page" fault, then it should at present be fixed.

11. Reset Your WordPress Site

In the worst-instance scenario, in that location may exist an installation issue. To fix it, you'll take to reset your WordPress site. It's vital that you have a recent backup you tin restore after this process is complete, every bit resetting your site volition cause you to lose all posts, pages, and user comments.

At that place are several methods for doing this, including via your MyKinsta dashboard, using a WordPress plugin, and by using WP-CLI (the WordPress control line). Information technology'southward best to save this road as a last resort, then you don't run a risk losing your site's content.

Are y'all getting the awfully alarming *Sorry, Y'all Are Not Immune to Access This Page* message? Endeavor i of these methods to go your access dorsum! 🙅‍♂️🔑 Click to Tweet

Summary

Being locked out of your admin dashboard in WordPress is nerve-wracking, to say the to the lowest degree. Quickly finding the right solution to the "Sorry, you are non allowed to access this page" error is vital to both your site and your peace of mind.

In this post, we covered a wide range of possible causes and fixes for this issue. Allow's recap them quickly:

  1. Restore a previous version of your site.
  2. Disable all of your plugins.
  3. Activate a default theme.
  4. Make certain you're an administrator.
  5. Check your fault log to pinpoint the cause.
  6. Ensure that your database prefix is right.
  7. Await for changes in your wp-config.php file.
  8. Upgrade to the latest version of php.
  9. Evaluate your file permissions.
  10. Create a new .htaccess file.
  11. Reset your WordPress site.

Happy fixing!


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