Thanks to all the comment suggestions on my previous post, I tried disabling all the plugins to see if that was the issue. Nope.
Then, with the help of Neil and Gill, we spent some time going down the rabbit hole of a weird SQL error having to do with language compatibility (UTF-8 vs. Latin-1). That wasn’t it either.
So I finally contacted my host to see if they had any idea what the problem was.
Turns out MY HOST is what the problem was. And also me. But mostly them. Because of me.
I (and this is the part where it’s totally my fault) had been incredibly lax about updating my admin password to something that was remotely secure (previous password having been a 6-lowercase -character dictionary word).
Because that is exceedingly vulnerable, WordPress is very susceptible to password hacks, and I’m on a shared server, my hosting provider put some extra security protocols in place.
Basically, they were terminating the SSL of all WordPress admin logins aimed at their servers, so they could enforce strong passwords (and deny access to those that weren’t strong enough). Fair enough protocol, in the name of good security.
Problem is, THEY DIDN’T BOTHER TELLING ME. Never did I get a notification that they were enacting this particular protocol, and the error it threw up (‘No data returned’) was, let’s say, less than helpful.
But, they were helpful in getting me in so I could re-set my password, so the blog lives again. So hooray? Yes. Hooray.
Now I just need to think of something to write about, now that the ‘broken blog’ excuse no longer applies.
