Can’t Access WordPress Dashboard – No Update Required

I recently ran into this issue: after an upgrade to the latest WordPress version, I tried to log in to the dashboard, only to see this notice: “No Update Required. Your WordPress database is already up-to-date!” Clicking on the “Continue” button takes me back to my site’s home page. I was locked out of my WordPress dashboard.

Resetting plugins and themes without the dashboard

I followed some handy tips outlined here:

  1. Reset your site’s theme by renaming your current theme’s folder via FTP. For example, if you are using the Make theme, go into your wp-content folder and rename the make folder to make-old.
  2. Deactivate your plugins via phpMyAdmin. In phpMyAdmin, go to the wp_options table and find the active_plugins row and change the option_value to a:0:{}.(You can also do this via FTP, too)
  3. Re-upload all WordPress files except for the wp-content folder.

What if that still doesn’t work?

I noticed that my sidebar didn’t change after I deactivated my plugins. I suspected this might have something to do with caching. Luckily, SiteGround allows me to purge my cache using CPanel. After flushing the cache, I was able to access my dashboard and restored my theme and plugins.