Reinstall Your WordPress Files and Databases
“Have you tried restarting it?” is the age-old wisdom of the IT world.
In this troubleshooting guide, I’ll show you some simple steps to reset the WordPress core files and database.
Understanding the problem
The below steps won’t fix all issues. They are only for issues that are likely to be WordPress core related glitches.
These types of issues usually manifest after a WordPress core update. If for some reason (ex: server resource exhaustion or a bug) only some files get updated, it often results in fatal errors or strange usability issues.
For example, if you navigate to an admin page and it doesn’t fully load, but it works fine on another site, you might have stumbled onto a glitch.
1) Create a backup
Create and download a backup of your site, just in case something goes wrong.
2) Fix your file permissions
Fix your folder and file permissions. Or contact your hosting company’s support and ask them to fix the folder and file permissions for you.
3) Reset your site
WordPress has made it easy to run a reinstall.
- Go to your WordPress admin > Updates.
Click the “Re-install Now” button.
The reinstall will execute the following process:
- Download the update package
- Unpack it
- Verify the unpacked files
- Prepare the installation
- Enable maintenance mode
- Copy over the required files
- Disable maintenance mode
- Update the database
This will all be done automatically for you, after clicking the Reinstall button. Once the process is done, you’ll get a confirmation message:
Pro tip: If WordPress’ admin or install installer isn’t working, give this process a try.
Conclusion
Now your WordPress core files and database should be reset.
If you’re still experiencing the issue, then it’s likely a bug in the WordPress core or a bug in an plugin, but you’re one step closer to narrowing it down. Sign up for one of our support plans if you need extra help and we’ll be glad to provide assistance.
Thanks Nick, but let me ask you about what you loss and what remains in the site (posts, menu etc) after the re-installation.
Good question, Alejandro! Nothing gets lost and everything remains. The only exception is if you made modification to WordPress core files (which should never be done anyway).
This post is a bit misleading. Some of the working here implies this process will “reset” WP – as in, you’ll go back to a fresh install with a clean db. That’s not true.
No db tables are deleted or reinstalled or reset. The only thing this process does is copy over WP core files. That’s it. I’d suggest clarifying that point and maybe rewriting some of this post.
I get the following error when i try to reinstall WordPress: Download failed.: The checksum of the file () does not match the expected checksum value (3f6f648ede0b2e1af094c908e4b15f96).
Can you help?
Never mind, the problem was solved by my hosting team. An upgrade was needed for the following:
max_execution_time
memory_limit
max_input_vars