Rant: My GoDaddy WordPress Blog Locked Me Out For 24 Hours

Yes, My GoDaddy WordPress blog locked me out for 24 hours! The motsy!

If you happen to have found this post by desperately searching for an answer on Google, I completely understand your frustration and you can bypass my rant and go right to the solution right at the bottom of this post. I get it. You are welcome!

For the rest of you this post is merely for entertainment and venting. It all seems funny now in a “OMG I DON'T KNOW WHAT I AM GOING TO DO WITH MYSELF FOR 24 HOURS” kind-a lingering feeling…

But there I was, happy as a clam this very afternoon writing and publishing my blog post for today (in case you didn't see it and you happen to need this info, read “How To Add Optin Forms To Your Blog“). But I digress. I was feeling pretty accomplished and started a second post. I took a little break to go test my new membership site (which is this AWESOME blog camp launching soon) and somehow WordPress decided to boot me out and asked me to log back in to continue what I was doing.

As luck would have it, I have all my passwords saved with LastPass so they are perfectly encrypted and secure plus it fills them in for me automatically, as it always has. BUT NOT TODAY. No sir! Didn't recognize my password. My first “Oh EM GEE” moment was with the first “sorry too many login attempts, try again in 20 minutes!”… WHAT DA… But I calmed down, I can take a 20 minute break, no problem. I just like taking breaks when I WANT TO not cuz I am “forced to”, ya know?… but I am ok. I accepted what the universe was trying to deliver…a little break perhaps.

Lo and behold, after 20 minutes this son of a building block locked me out AGAIN for another 20 minutes. Oh Lord give me strength. I helped my daughter with some artistic review of her “pictures only” story book. Guess the story mom! Really awesome actually. I think she could be a book illustrator some day. My mind is fuming silently, but semi-calmy. You don't wanna know.

I set a timer. I research all possible passwords (2) and I call GoDaddy to verify. They confirm I got the right password (interesting ey?), but they can't help me get back in if I fail, and I will have to do my jail time. Even though I own this blog and all its files. It's GoDaddy WordPress jail… but hey 20 minutes, no big deal.

Try again. FAIL. WordPress response? ERROR: Too many failed login attempts. Try again in 24 Hours!!!! 😯  

Nobody talk to me right now. Go away and everything will be ok. I know it's close to dinner time. Don't we have hot dogs somewhere??? So I proceed to send several emails to my (amazing) developer Abu to see if he can get in and help me out. Which prompts me to try to get in with one of the test accounts I set up. OMG I am A GENIUS! … I discover EVERYONE IS LOCKED OUT, including me (the Admin) FOR 24 HOURS. Nice. Note to self: might wanna look into this.

No way I am staying out of this blog for 24 hours now so I proceeded to Google all possible suggestions even if this requires me to alter some code somewhere deep in the site. And alas I FOUND A SOLUTION and I wish I could send a message to the owner of the post but it was a blank template blog page… I TAKE THIS AS A SIGN FROM THE UNIVERSE (break over I guess!).

2 hours later, I am back inside my blog and compelled to share this story with you. Not only to share the struggles we all go through, but so that when I lock myself out again I can look back at this article and find the solution to my problem cuz I have no idea how I caused it so I am sure I will do this again. And who knows, maybe it will help someone out there in the future trying to find answers through those long-ass threads in discussion forums that make ABSOLUTELY no sense to me EVER. There IS such as thing as too much code IMHO.

Here is how to unlock yourself buddy! (Disclaimer, if this doesn't work just get the wine, dwell in misery for 24 hours then get back in the game. Never give up!)

1- You must have access to your STP files or FTP access somehow. If you are hosting WordPress through Godaddy's installation you must go thru Filezilla (it's free) to access your files. Don't ask. Don't know.

2- Find ANY active plugin under your plugin folder. Akismet, CommentLuv, ANY active one

3- Add this bit of code into the plugin .php file code, like after the first *. If you are lost just look for where the code appears to begin and add this right above it. Save the file (but remember which file in case you gotta go back in and change it). Copy the italics code below in its entirety and paste it into that code.

remove_action( ‘plugins_loaded', ‘limit_login_setup', 99999 );

4- Voila you are not an offender anymore and you can get back in. In 24 hours, after your jail time is over, remember to go back into that plugin and remove that little line of code. But you must wait 24 hours otherwise it logs you back out!! Yes I know this from recent experience :-).

You are welcome!

So that's how I have spend 2 hours tonight and well, at the very minimum you know where to find the answer if you ever lock yourself out and you are totally obsessed with blogging in the next 24 hours that you just gotta do something about it now. Bloggers understand this. Peace!

</RANT OVER>