Network admin showing a page of php

I have just setup a multisite and followed the same steps as always. The only plugins I have installed are some WPMU dev ones – smartcrawl, smush, defender etc.

I logged in today and clicked network admin and it shows:

‘ . __( ‘Welcome to your Network Admin. This area of the Administration Screens is used for managing all aspects of your Multisite Network.’ ) . ‘

‘; $overview .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘From here you can:’ ) . ‘

‘; $overview .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘Add and manage sites or users’ ) . ‘

‘; $overview .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘Install and activate themes or plugins’ ) . ‘

‘; $overview .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘Update your network’ ) . ‘

‘; $overview .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘Modify global network settings’ ) . ‘

‘; get_current_screen()->add_help_tab( array( ‘id’ => ‘overview’, ‘title’ => __( ‘Overview’ ), ‘content’ => $overview ) ); $quick_tasks = ‘

‘ . __( ‘The Right Now widget on this screen provides current user and site counts on your network.’ ) . ‘

‘; $quick_tasks .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘To add a new user, click Create a New User.’ ) . ‘

‘; $quick_tasks .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘To add a new site, click Create a New Site.’ ) . ‘

‘; $quick_tasks .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘To search for a user or site, use the search boxes.’ ) . ‘

‘; $quick_tasks .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘To search for a user, enter an email address or username. Use a wildcard to search for a partial username, such as user*.’ ) . ‘

‘; $quick_tasks .= ‘

‘ . __( ‘To search for a site, enter the path or domain.’ ) . ‘

‘; get_current_screen()->add_help_tab( array( ‘id’ => ‘quick-tasks’, ‘title’ => __( ‘Quick Tasks’ ), ‘content’ => $quick_tasks ) ); get_current_screen()->set_help_sidebar( ‘

‘ . __(‘For more information:’:wink: . ‘

Any ideas why? I have deleted all plugins via ftp and it still happens. I can’t click on any menu under network admin so can’t change a thing.

I have only spent an hour setting everything up, but don’t really want to delete and start again.

  • Dimitris Kalliris
    • Support Team Lead

    Hey there ian_addison,

    hope you’re doing good today! :slight_smile:

    I haven’t seen this before, but as this is a brand new installation, you could:

    1) deactivate any server-side cache or 3rd party services like Cloudflare

    2) delete all plugins via FTP

    3) overwrite WP core files (simply download WP from here and reupload all files and folders

    4) make sure you’re using the correct set of rules in wp-config.php and .htaccess files (these won’t be overridden in previous step).

    Let us know how that goes!

    Warm regards,

    Dimitris

  • ian_addison
    • Flash Drive

    Totally confused now. Have removed everything, the entire site, database and everything. I then re-downloaded WordPress, installed it, all working ok. Made 8 sub-sites, created users etc (manually, no plugins or anything) and it all seemed ok. Logged out, came back 2 days later and same issue.

    The only plugins I have are Akismet and a few wpmudev ones (smush, hummingbird, defender)

    Any suggestions?

    What do you mean by “the correct set of rules” in wp-config.php?

  • Dimitris Kalliris
    • Support Team Lead

    Hey there ian_addison,

    hope you're doing good today! :slight_smile:

    Totally confused now. Have removed everything, the entire site, database and everything. I then re-downloaded WordPress, installed it, all working ok. Made 8 sub-sites, created users etc (manually, no plugins or anything) and it all seemed ok. Logged out, came back 2 days later and same issue.

    The only plugins I have are Akismet and a few wpmudev ones (smush, hummingbird, defender)

    Any suggestions?

    So you actually activated successfully the multisite WordPress and you had to issue even with creating subsites?

    Did you create these via front end registration pages or from the Network admin area -> Sites -> Add New?

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    Is there any other change/update that happened between these two days that resulted you to lose access with your super admin user? Please advise!

    You could try to surpass this by making some basic troubleshooting as shown here:

    https://wpmudev.com/docs/getting-started/getting-support/#chapter-2

    including a conflict test, meaning deactivating all plugins and check how that goes.

    If you don't have access to admin area to deactivate these, you can simply access your server via FTP and rename the actual plugin folder names, for example, renaming

    /wp-content/plugins/wpmudev_updates

    to

    /wp-content/plugins/_wpmudev_updates

    will deactivate WPMUDEV Dashboard plugin.

    Here's a nice flow chart for a generic conflict test: https://wpmudev.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Support-Process-Support-Process.gif

    What do you mean by "the correct set of rules" in wp-config.php?

    When you "allow multisite" in WordPress as shown here https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network#Step_2:_Allow_Multisite,

    you enable the actual multisite by adding some rules in wp-config.php and .htaccess files

    https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network#Step_4:_Enabling_the_Network

    https://codex.wordpress.org/images/5/5c/tools-network-created.png

    After setting multisite, you should be able to see these in network admin area under Settings -> Network Setup

    Warm regards,

    Dimitris

  • ian_addison
    • Flash Drive

    Ok, so have deleted everything, database, plugins, wordpress, everything.

    Reinstalled WordPress (have tried via uploading, this time I did it from my server’s one-click install and then upgraded to 4.8.1)

    Set it to multisite (following link above as I always do).

    Installed WPMUDev dashboard (and some plugins, smush, hummingbird, defender)

    Logged out and back in at every point.

    Setup 8 sub-sites and made users for these. All done manually through the network admin page.

    Logged out, back in and boom. Same thing.

    Page of php on the network admin page.

    I can manage every site individually, but I can do nothing on network admin at all as it is just a page of text. AARRGGHH

    I have now encountered this 5 times, each time after about an hour of setup, I’m getting fed up due to the time wasted on this but I can’t see why it is happening!!