What to do if you log in to your WordPress site but the theme is broken, resulting in no menus or dashboard!?

If you can log in to your site but there are no menus or dashboard, there are still several steps you can take to troubleshoot and fix the issue:

1. Access the Site via FTP or Hosting Control Panel

• Use an FTP client (like FileZilla) or your hosting control panel’s file manager to access your site’s files.

2. Disable the Current Theme

• Navigate to wp-content/themes directory.
• Rename the folder of your active theme. For example, change yourtheme to yourtheme_old.
• This will force WordPress to revert to a default theme (like Twenty Twenty-One) if it’s available.

3. Check for Plugin Conflicts

• Navigate to the wp-content/plugins directory.
• Temporarily rename the plugins folder to something like plugins_old.
• This will disable all plugins. If you can access your dashboard after this, rename the folder back to plugins and then rename each individual plugin folder one by one to find the conflicting plugin.

4. Enable Debugging Mode

• Edit the wp-config.php file in the root directory of your WordPress installation.
• Add or modify the following lines to enable debugging:phpCopy codedefine('WP_DEBUG', true); define('WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false);
  • This will create a debug.log file in the wp-content directory where you can check for errors.

5. Check File Permissions

• Ensure that your files and folders have the correct permissions. Typically, folders should be set to 755 and files to 644.

6. Reinstall WordPress Core Files

• Download a fresh copy of WordPress from wordpress.org.
• Extract the files and upload everything except the wp-content folder via FTP to your site’s root directory. This will replace the core files without affecting your content.

7. Restore from Backup

• If you have a recent backup of your site, you can restore it to a point before the issue occurred.

8. Contact Hosting Support

• If the issue persists and you’re unable to resolve it, contact your hosting provider’s support team. They might be able to assist you in identifying and fixing the issue.

9. Use the WordPress Recovery Mode

• Sometimes, WordPress may send an email with a recovery link if it detects a fatal error. Check your email for any such notifications and follow the instructions.

10. Check Browser Console for Errors

• Open your site in a web browser and press F12 (or right-click and select “Inspect”) to open the developer console.
• Look for any JavaScript errors or failed network requests that could give clues about what’s wrong.

By following these steps, you should be able to identify and resolve the issue with your WordPress theme and regain access to your dashboard.

Keep in mind that you may not see changes right away due to server cache/caching which is used to keep websites running at blazing fast speeds, but can cause a delay in any updates you may make. You can read more about it by searching our site for wordpress caching.. We speculate this is where the word ka-ching might come from.

If you’ve gotten this far and tried every single thing we listed above and still have not resolved the issue, go back to number 8 and contact your hosting provider. They are usually very helpful, and often will help get your website back up and running in no time. However, they may charge a fee if it is not really about their hosting service, but this is when it’s more of an issue about your website development.