Take a breath: you cannot be locked out for good. Login Guard was built around this exact worry, and there are four ways back, from easiest to last resort. Start at way 1 and stop as soon as you are in.
Way 1. Search your inbox:
Every administrator was emailed the address when it went live, and again every time it changed. Search your email for login address. The subject is one of these:
- Your login address for (your site name)
- Your login address for (your site name) has changed
- The login address you asked for: (your site name)
Open the newest one and press the Sign in button, or copy the address shown under The address. Check your spam folder too.
Way 2. The "forgot where to sign in?" page:
- Go to yoursite.com/?login-help (put your own domain in place of yoursite.com). If you changed the help page address in Settings, use that instead.
- The page says Forgot where to sign in? In the Your email box, type the email address of your administrator account.
- Press Email me the login address.
- The page says: If that email belongs to an administrator of this site, the login address is on its way to it now. Check your inbox, and the spam folder.
- Open the email, with the subject The login address you asked for: (your site name), and press Sign in.
Good to know about the help page:
- It never shows the address on the page itself. It is only ever emailed.
- It says exactly the same thing whatever is typed, so a stranger learns nothing from it.
- It only sends the address when the email belongs to an administrator account, and only to that one email.
- Three tries an hour per visitor. After that it says Too many requests from here. Please wait an hour and try again.
- If it says That form had expired. Please try again., reload the page and try again.
- It is switched on unless you turned it off on the Settings tab.
Way 3. Anywhere you are still signed in:
If you are still signed in on another computer, phone or browser, your address is right there:
- On your main WordPress Dashboard, in the Your login address box
- On the Dashboard tab of AiX Login Guard, with a Copy button
- At the top of the free key screen, if the key is not active
Another administrator who is signed in can look it up for you, or press Email it to every administrator again on the Login Guard Dashboard tab.
Way 4: The emergency switch (last resort) One line in wp-config.php switches the disguise off, so wp-login.php works again. Nothing is changed or lost. You need access to your hosting control panel's File Manager or to FTP.
- Log in to your hosting control panel and open the File Manager, or connect with FTP.
- Find wp-config.php in the main folder of your WordPress site, the same folder that holds wp-admin and wp-content.
- Make a copy of the file as a backup, then open it to edit.
- Add this line on a line of its own, above the line that says That's all, stop editing:
define( 'RXLG_OFF', true );
- Save the file.
- Go to yoursite.com/wp-login.php and sign in as normal.
- Open AiX Login Guard. Your address is on the Dashboard tab, or at the top of the free key screen. Copy it and bookmark it.
- Go back to wp-config.php, delete the line you added and save. The disguise is back straight away, with the same address.
While the switch is on, your login is not hidden, and your secret address does not answer: wp-login.php does. Login Guard puts a red warning on every admin screen until you take the line out, showing your hidden address so you can copy it. The Dashboard and Diagnostics tabs say the same. The line is also printed in every login address email and on the Settings tab, with a Copy button, so you have it ready.
Another last resort. Rename the plugin folder:
If you cannot edit wp-config.php but can rename folders:
- In File Manager or FTP, open wp-content, then plugins.
- Rename the folder resultsaix-login-guard to something else, for example resultsaix-login-guard-off.
- WordPress can no longer find the plugin, so it stops running and wp-login.php works again. Sign in there.
- Rename the folder back to resultsaix-login-guard, then go to Plugins and activate ResultsAiX Login Guard. Your saved address comes back and is emailed to every administrator again.
The emergency switch is the better choice when you can use it, because nothing is switched off and it is one line to take out again.
Still stuck?
Contact support at https://kevinfahey.org/contact-support/ with your site address, and we will help you back in.