If you’re experiencing trouble with your WordPress site, want to make sure that corrupt files cause the problem, and you can’t find it. After several failed attempts, reinstalling WordPress is one of the last and final options for troubleshooting any problem. We’ll show you how to reinstall the WordPress site through simple and easy steps. It’s similar to when your computer gets stuck in the middle of a task, and you can’t figure out how to fix it. Simply switch off the computer and turn it back on after a few seconds to restart it.
Similarly, the only way to fix any potentially harmful issue is to reinstall WordPress from scratch. But the most difficult problem is reinstalling WordPress without losing any data, such as themes, plugins, blog posts, or influencing SEO. There are several methods to reinstall the website, and we will discuss all those methods that will help you while installing WordPress.
The only thing we ask is that you back up your data before using any of these techniques. Even though these procedures are intended to assist you in reinstalling WordPress without losing any content, a fresh backup is always a good idea if something goes wrong! You can easily backup your WordPress site with a single click. Let’s get started!
Why reinstall WordPress?
The most typical reason for reinstalling WordPress is to troubleshooting a potentially harmful problem. However, we do not encourage this as a means of resolving any issues. Because most WordPress common problems are simple to fix and have solutions available on the internet, rather than reinstalling WordPress, you should always explore alternate methods. Let’s look at when and why you might want to reinstall WordPress:
WordPress compatibility Issues
When you install WordPress on your web server, you may encounter plugin compatibility problems. WordPress is behaving strangely. Woocommerce is one such well-known plugin that has caused serious WordPress compatibility issues. It’s because WordPress keeps pushing out frequent updates to their users for security and bug fixes. As a result, most users prefer to reinstall WordPress’s prior version to resolve this issue.
Themes and Plugin malfunction
When your WordPress theme or plugin is behaving strangely or malfunctioning, we recommend that you check each plugin to see which one is causing the problem. Then, remove it and replace it with the most suitable version or a different plugin. Finally, if the problem persists and nothing else helps, you should try reinstalling WordPress.
While testing and Developing
Some developers use WordPress as a testing platform to execute and test their plugins. As a result, they had to reinstall WordPress in various versions to evaluate plugin compatibility. While some newbies attempt to design websites and explore WordPress capabilities, others try to learn how to code.
Unfortunately, they frequently make mistakes during this process, such as removing important core files or using poor site design. Without the need for answers or prior technical knowledge, get things back on track. Instead, they would rather have WordPress reinstalled. WP-FirstHand suggests a Staging site option to consumers and developers so that users can test plugins or assess the website’s performance before deploying it on the main site.
Hackers attack
Hackers may cause serious harm to your website by targeting system files. You’ll need to remove everything and reinstall WordPress to start with your website in such a scenario. It’s also possible to be locked out of WordPress.
Can I reinstall WordPress without losing content?
Yes, you can reinstall the WordPress, and we will show three different methods to reinstall the core WordPress without affecting the existing content, theme, and plugin. We’ll ensure that none of these methods will affect your site database, any of the .php files, and so on. Only the core WordPress software is reinstalled in each way.
How to Reinstall WordPress Core Software From Your Dashboard
You can reinstall the core WordPress files directly from your WordPress dashboard (if you don’t have access to the WordPress website dashboard, skip down to the next section to do the same thing through FTP!).
First, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard, and on the right sidebar, click on the Update button. Once you click on it, a new window appears, and there you’ll notice an option of the Reinstall Now button.
WordPress will start downloading and reinstall the latest version of WordPress automatically after you click on the Reinstall Now button.
So when you update WordPress from your dashboard, you’re essentially just manually re-running the standard Update process that WordPress performs. It may take a few moments, but you should have a fresh copy of WordPress installed after the process is complete.
How to Reinstall WordPress Software through FTP
You can perform a similar operation over FTP if you can’t access your WordPress dashboard due to an error (or if you prefer to operate over FTP). In the above part, you’ll essentially be manually duplicating what WordPress would normally perform for you. Now we’ll show you how you will download and install the new version of WordPress; here is the process:
- Download the latest version of WordPress
- Extract the ZIP file
- Upload everything except the /wp-content/ folder
First, visit WordPress.org. To download the most recent WordPress version, scroll down to the end and click on the Get WordPress button.
Once you click on it, it will redirect to the new page to download the latest WordPress version. After the complete downloading, extract the ZIP file’s entire contents to your PC. Then go to your directory and delete the wp-content folder.
After that, log in to your host through FTP and upload the remaining files to the location where WordPress was originally installed. It is usually your root folder, which is labelled public or public_html. Your FTP program should notify you with a warning similar to the Target file that already exists when you begin uploading the files. If this occurs, be sure to select the Overwrite option and proceed as follows:
Because you have erased the wp-content folder, this will overwrite all of the essential WordPress files, leaving your themes and plugins unaffected. When the upload is finished, you should have a newer version of the WordPress core files, and everything should be working fine.
How To Effectively Uninstall And Reinstall WordPress
This method completely deletes all the WordPress files, contents, plugins, and themes. Therefore, before proceeding, we strongly recommend that you confirm that you desire a new beginning. To start purging WordPress files, you must first connect your File manager to your computer using an FTP client.
First, you need to access the cPanel, navigate to File Manager and click on the public_html folder. Once you click on it will redirect to the new page, and here you need to select all the files and click on the delete button.
Wait a few seconds until all files have vanished and the screen looks like this:
Now the only WordPress files have been erased. You must also delete all files in the database to complete the uninstallation. However, the method is the same regardless of whatever Web hosting service you use. Search for the “My SQL Databases” icon in your cPanel (depending on your host), which should look like this:
Choose the database you want to delete by clicking the “MySQL Databases” icon. Then select “Remove Database” from the drop-down menu.
You’ve just deleted everything from your website. You may now start from scratch by installing the most recent and fresh version of WordPress. After downloading, install WordPress to your web hosting server. That’s it.
Content Restoration
To recover your page and its contents, first go to your WordPress dashboard. Next, navigate to the Tools area on the dashboard’s left-hand side. Then, go to Tools > Import > WordPress; under WordPress, click on the Installas demonstrated in the image below.
When you click the Install Now button, WordPress will download and install Importer for you immediately. After you’ve installed Importer, it’ll take you to a WordPress page, where you’ll be asked to upload a file with a maximum size of 256 megabytes.
Select the XML file you want to import from your backup and click Upload file and Import.
WordPress will prompt you to create and assign authors when you’ve uploaded the XML files. You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to allocate them yourself. WordPress will also import the authors automatically.
Before hitting the submit button, be sure you check the Download and Import file attachments box. WordPress will then import all of the media files into the uploads subdirectory. WordPress will continue importing content to your new WordPress website after you click the Submit button. And once you’ve finished the process, it’ll show up on your Website.
Reset WordPress through Plugin
WordPress is well-known for its open-source platform and flexibility. Whatever your problems are, there is always a plugin to help you solve them. Unfortunately, because most consumers are neither tech-savvy nor interested in coding, they find this information extremely frightening. As a result, there is always a Plugin to solve any WordPress problem. Similarly, if you don’t have time to use an FTP client or log in to cPanel, you can use WordPress Plugins to reset your WordPress website.
Developers generally use these plugins to fast reset their WordPress websites and test or run their tools. These plugins can erase databases, theme settings, web pages, and website content. However, your themes, plugins, or media files are not affected or deleted. To reset your WordPress installation, you can use one of the following WordPress reset plugins:
Note: This procedure is only for resetting your WordPress site, not for reinstalling WordPress from scratch.
Conclusion
Finally, reinstalling WordPress is a simple process. Whether you only want to reinstall the WordPress core software or completely delete the WordPress. On your server, use WordPress’s built-in update functionality or Reinstalling WordPress, excluding the wp-content folder and the wp-config.php file. And if you want to start from the beginning, all you have to do is delete your existing file and database. Next, using whatever method you like, install a fresh copy of WordPress. We cover everything in this article for better understanding and learning purposes. Leave a comment below if you have any questions regarding this article.
