WordPress Error: WP-Admin Redirects to a 404 Page

So it’s after 8’o clock in the night and one of our customers reports an issue with their website backend to our 24/7 support team. He’s preparing the website for some highly anticipated traffic in a few days so having no accessibility to the website right now is a nightmare about to unfold!

WP-Admin 404 Redirection Problem

So here is what happened in detail. Whilst trying to access the WordPress backend using www.hisdomain.com/wp-admin. The browser tried to load this page however it just redirected to the standard 404 page. Super weird but no need to worry. You aren’t hacked. Here are some quick ways you can fix this issue.

Another potential problem that shares these similar solutions looks like this – when you enter your WordPress credentials and the page just refreshes – no error nothing. Just frustration isn’t it.

DISCLAIMER: Please make sure your website is back-up before attempting this update. When doing updates like this one the risk maybe low but you never want to put yourself in a worse situation. All of the websites we maintain are updated multiple time per day to ensure the moment that something comes up, we have our client covered.

WP-Admin 404 Redirection Solution

We’ll look at 4 quick possible solutions that could cause this error. Go through each one and double check to see if you have access as you progress.

1. Hosting Issues
2. Plugin Confliction
3. Caching & Cookies
4. Htaccess File Corruption
5. Website URL

1. Check in with your host

Sometimes your website maybe affected by recent updates your host made regarding your server. Before you make any updates on your own be sure to check with your host especially if you didn’t make any WordPress updates recently.

To check your host – log into your hosting account and proceed to your database. You can access your database by going to PHPMyAdmin. If you can access this and your database is available then congratulations. You can cross off your first possible problem off the list and move onto the next problem.

However, if you can access your database, then congrats still. You have found your problem. On the screen there should be an error saying unable to login or a message along these lines in red. Head on over to your host providers support and depending on the host they’ll be able to assist you and provide you with more information to get you up and running as soon as possible.

Now, it’s 2020 and bad host are no longer tolerated, if you have any issues with your hosting, the server quality or the support service, there is no need to suffer. Check out this host provider we use for hundreds of our clients called SiteGround.

2. Plugin Confliction

Now if you are onto part 2 of possible problems and you followed part 1, don’t leave your hosting account. If you have, you can just log back in or open up your FTP account to the website. Plugins are usually the cause of most issues relating to WordPress as they are created by many developers and sometimes they clash with each other. The regular suspects are security plugins, 404 / redirection plugins and other plugins that allow you to change your wp-admin url to another name.

Once logged into your FTP or File Manager go to your public_html folder which contains your website files. Proceed to the WP-Content folder and look for plugins. Get started by removing files one at a time … after every removal revisit your WP-Admin and see if you can login. If you do then you definitely have a conflicting plugin issue.

3. Caching & Cookie Issues

One of the other possible solutions is to clear your cache. Sounds crazy but this actually works. Cookies are a vital part of WordPress especially when it comes to authentication.

Depending on your browser you’ll need to clear your “cookies and cache” for the specific website. Afterwards, go ahead and close your browser and reopen it. Now try to access your website backend. Sometimes you may need to give this a few hours but lets push ahead if it didn’t work for you.

4. Htaccess File Corruption

Note: This was the one that actually that worked for us.

Now before you skip over this because you didn’t change the .htaccess recently. DON’T. We didn’t change the .htaccess file recently either however, plugins can sometimes cause htaccess corruption. Similar to the Caching & Cookies, this file is also vital to the functioning of WordPress. Thankfully, this solution is super easy to solve. Simple open your file manager or go to your FTP and delete this file called .htaccess. If at first you do not see this file however, you will need to show hidden files as this is considered a hidden file. Once deleted – your WordPress application will regenerate a fresh .htaccess file.

5. Website URL

Now if none of the above have work, there is still hope. This last fix should do the trick! You may need to override the website URL. How? It’s simple. Open your FTP or File Manager in CPanel. Look for a file in your website root folder called wp-config.php. Within this file you are going to place the following lines of code below: