WordPress Login Not Working

Open https://your-domain/wp-login.php in a private window and sign in; if that works, the problem is cookies or cache in your normal browser, not the site.

• Clear cookies and cached files for this site only, then sign in again.
• Type the address yourself rather than using an old bookmark that may point to http:// or a different host.
• If the form says the password is wrong, use Lost your password and check spam for the email.
• If you use a page cache or CDN, make sure /wp-login.php and /wp-admin/ are excluded from caching; see clearing the WordPress cache.

WordPress accepted the password but then redirected the browser to a different address, so the login cookie does not match; the cause is almost always siteurl/home, a redirect rule or HTTPS behind a proxy.

• Site URLs: the siteurl and home rows in the _options table must match the address you use exactly, including https and www. If WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL are set in wp-config.php, those win. Ways to fix them are in changing the WordPress site URL.
• .htaccess loop: rename .htaccess to .htaccess-off and try again; if it works, re-save Settings → Permalinks to write a clean file.
• Cloudflare "Flexible" SSL or a proxy: the proxy talks to the server over HTTP while WordPress expects HTTPS, causing a loop. Switch Cloudflare SSL to Full (strict) with a certificate on the server, or, behind a trusted proxy, add if ( isset( $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] ) && $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] === 'https' ) { $_SERVER['HTTPS'] = 'on'; } near the top of wp-config.php.

When the reset email never arrives, set a new password directly: WP-CLI is the cleanest way, and phpMyAdmin works without SSH. Back up the database first.

# list administrators, then set a new password
wp user list --role=administrator --fields=ID,user_login,user_email
wp user update 1 --user_pass='use-a-long-unique-passphrase'

# restore a lost Administrator role
wp user set-role 1 administrator

1. Without SSH, open cPanel → phpMyAdmin, select the site's database and the table ending in _users.
2. Click Edit on your user, type a new password in user_pass, choose MD5 in the Function column and click Go.
3. Sign in at /wp-login.php. WordPress accepts the old-style hash once and replaces it with a modern one; since WordPress 6.8 new hashes use bcrypt.
4. Change the password again from Users → Profile, so the stored value is one you never typed into phpMyAdmin.

If your username is not in that table, you are in the wrong database or prefix; check DB_NAME and $table_prefix in wp-config.php. A strong password can come from the password generator.