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My wordpress sites have disappeared! What could have happened?

by Hamida Harland
14 replies
I just checked a few of my Wordpress sites today and found that the sites had disappeared but this code came up instead:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home/admin/public_html/wp-includes/default-filters.php on line 230

I've never seen this happen before & I didn't come up with any real info when I googled it. Anyone know what it means? I don't think it's anything I've done as I haven't touched these sites in a while.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I want to get my sites up and running again asap! Thanks
#disappeared #happened #sites #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    The file might be damaged. (Hacked?)

    Did you try uploading a fresh copy of that file: wp-includes/default-filters.php?
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    • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      The file might be damaged. (Hacked?)

      Did you try uploading a fresh copy of that file: wp-includes/default-filters.php?
      That was my first thought as well - about half my sites on one hosting account are affected. Probably a stupid question but where can I get a fresh copy of that file? (I'm not very technical)
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  • Profile picture of the author mmurtha
    Originally Posted by Hamida Harland View Post

    I just checked a few of my Wordpress sites today and found that the sites had disappeared but this code came up instead:

    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home/admin/public_html/wp-includes/default-filters.php on line 230

    I've never seen this happen before & I didn't come up with any real info when I googled it. Anyone know what it means? I don't think it's anything I've done as I haven't touched these sites in a while.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I want to get my sites up and running again asap! Thanks
    Check to see if your hosting company upgraded recently. I usually see this type of error when the PHP module updates, and the update doesn't support the script you are running on your site (such as WP).

    If your hosting account was upgraded and it sits on a shared account, there's nothing you can do but upgrade WP. But, if you are hosted on a VPS or dedicated server, you can ask your hosting company to set the PHP module back to where it was before you ran into the error.

    At least that is what I did with my blogs until I had time to upgrade them all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    I always have a copy of my WP installs on my computer. Don't you? - as a backup...

    If you have the latest WP - just download it, unzip and there you have it:
    WordPress › Download

    Older versions can found from the same page in the archives: Download › Release Archives
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    • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      I always have a copy of my WP installs on my computer. Don't you? - as a backup...
      Luckily I do - thanks for the links.
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    • Profile picture of the author sundrop881
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      I always have a copy of my WP installs on my computer. Don't you? - as a backup...

      If you have the latest WP - just download it, unzip and there you have it:
      WordPress › Download

      Older versions can found from the same page in the archives: Download › Release Archives

      What version of Wordpress are you using? I had a similar problem last fall and spent months trying to clean my infected files only to find out that using the old WP version had a hole in it, so it kept getting reinfected. So I had to get the new WP version --totally clean--I could not just upgrade, as it would not get rid of the infection.

      I suggest you go to your site's wp-admin section and export your posts before you uninstall your old wordpress. Otherwise you will lose all your old posts. But the WP uninstall and new WP needs to be done. Leave any infected files, or database files, for that matter, and your site will be corrupted shortly again. I learned this the hard way.
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  • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
    Possible hacking:

    WordPress › Support Parse error: syntax error, unexpected - HELP!

    (The above link has links to other resources, such as how to clean a hacked blog.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    Because in that post at the WP forum somebody posted the code lines from their hacked WP install.

    Tell AVG to shut up and you can see the thread
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  • Profile picture of the author E-supreme
    If your hosting with hostgator email: security@hostgator.com they will get back to you in about 20 minutes.
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  • Profile picture of the author chandan_dutta
    The file should be there in your wordpress backup. Just copy that file and upload and see once. You will get the file in any worpress theme under include folder.
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