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Why Does My WordPress Login Redirect to the Wrong Page? Troubleshooting Guide

16 threads Sep 7, 2025 Core → Localhost installs

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Experiencing a redirect to an unexpected page after logging into your WordPress site is a common and often confusing issue for users and administrators alike. Instead of landing on the homepage or dashboard, you might find yourself on a user profile page, a "Hello World" post, or even a 404 error page. This guide will walk you through the most common causes and their solutions, based on community troubleshooting.

Why This Login Redirect Happens

The login redirect is controlled by a combination of your WordPress settings, active plugins, and theme. A misconfiguration in any of these areas can override the default login behavior and send users to an incorrect destination. Common culprits include incorrect site address settings, plugin conflicts, permalink issues, and caching.

Common Solutions to Fix Login Redirects

1. Check Your WordPress Address Settings

An inconsistency between your WordPress Address and Site Address is a frequent cause of redirect loops and errors. This is especially common after migrating a site.

  • Navigate to Settings > General in your WordPress admin dashboard.
  • Ensure both the WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) are identical, including the protocol (http:// or https://).
  • Save the changes.

2. Flush Your Permalinks

Outdated or corrupt permalink rules can cause pages to not be found, leading to redirects to the index or a 404 page.

  • Go to Settings > Permalinks.
  • Simply click the "Save Changes" button without making any changes. This refreshes the permalink rules.

3. Investigate Plugin Conflicts

Plugins, especially those that manage user access, memberships, or caching, often have settings that control post-login redirects. A conflict between them can cause unexpected behavior.

  • Identify the Culprit: Temporarily deactivate all plugins. If the login redirect works correctly, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify which one is causing the issue.
  • Check Plugin Settings: For plugins like BuddyPress, Simple LDAP Login, or members plugins, review their settings for any rules that might be forcing a redirect to a user profile or a specific page upon login.
  • Clear Caches: If you use a caching plugin (e.g., LiteSpeed Cache), clear its cache and temporarily disable it to see if it resolves the issue.

4. Review Your Homepage Settings

WordPress allows you to set a static page as your homepage. If this page is deleted, set to private, or has other issues, it can cause redirect problems.

  • Go to Settings > Reading.
  • Confirm that the "Your homepage displays" setting is configured as intended and that the page selected for the "Homepage" exists and is published.

5. Search and Replace Old URLs (After Migration)

If you recently moved your site from a localhost environment (e.g., http://localhost/wordpress) to a live server, your database likely still contains many references to the old address, causing broken links and redirects.

  • Use a reliable search and replace tool, such as the "Better Search Replace" plugin.
  • Carefully search for your old localhost URL (e.g., http://localhost/wordpress) and replace it with your new live site URL (e.g., https://yourdomain.com).
  • Warning: Always back up your database completely before running a search and replace operation.

6. Check User Roles and Permissions

As seen in the sample threads, some plugins redirect users to specific pages based on their user role. A subscriber might be sent to a different page than an administrator.

  • Verify the role of the user experiencing the issue under Users > All Users.
  • Check the settings of any membership or community plugins to see if redirects are defined per user role.

Conclusion

A misdirected login in WordPress is rarely a bug but almost always a configuration issue. The most effective troubleshooting approach is to work through these common causes methodically. Start with the simplest fixes like checking your general settings and flushing permalinks before moving on to more involved steps like testing for plugin conflicts. By following this guide, you should be able to identify and correct the redirect and ensure users land on the right page every time they log in.

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