Well, not exactly but almost? I think it happened when I changed hosts and my sql file became corrupted last June, and I hadn’t realized it. Well, I hadn’t been keeping up with my projects on this site and finally got the energy to move it which was economically better. I didn’t check all aspects of the site and unknown to me the site was going downhill fast.

DAY ONE

First I had trouble logging in, then it turned into a redirection loop. I couldn’t get into the backend. Research told me I might need to repair my database tables. so I went into phpmyadmin and repaired. Wow, I got in, so happy! But little did I know that was just the tip of the iceberg. I couldn’t post new pages or posts. I looked at the error log and it kept repeating that I had duplicate primary key errors in different tables of the database. I researched and worked on it about a day and tried all suggestions; nothing worked for me.

DAY TWO

I had a feeling the database errors were expansive, and with my lack of knowledge on how to fix databases, I figured I’d better do a whole database refresh. I found a plugin that replaces a database with fresh tables but keeps your user ID so you can get back in. So I backed up my posts ans pages and installed the plugin. I ran it and gee, Wordfence blocked me from doing it! So I uninstalled Wordfence and tried again. It still blocked me. I remembered that there were a bunch of tables in the database that were Wordfence related, so I went in and dropped all those tables. I thought “gee, now it should work” -NOT. I went into the site files via FTP and there was no plugin folder– where the heck was Wordfence still operating from?? After another session of research, I found a plugin that removes ALL of Wordfence “stuff”. I ran it and it worked, I got my ability to post back!

DAY THREE

Then I imported my pages and posts, but some were messed up or missing altogether, including media. So I spent today getting all existing posts and pages back up to pre-catastrophe. NOW to get back to what I had intended to do- create all the projects I’ve completed since I dropped the ball a year ago. Oh, and I’ve decided not to try to make money on this site, it’s just for me. Now I can write whatever I want!