### [WordPress Critical Error: How to Log In With No Email](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wordpress-critical-error-no-email/)

**Published:** July 26, 2021
**Author:** Claire Broadley

**Excerpt:** Is your WordPress site experiencing a critical error? This can be extremely frustrating to fix, especially if you don't receive the error notification email from WordPress. In this post, we'll walk you through how to disable your plugins and gain access to your site again when it's experiencing a critical error.

**Content:**

Have you got a WordPress critical error, but no email has arrived with a login link?

The ‘white screen of death’ can lock you out of your site if you don’t receive the notification.

In this article, we’ll show you how to log in to your WordPress dashboard without the recovery mode email.

[Fix Your WordPress Emails Now](https://wpmailsmtp.com/pricing/)

### How Do I Fix a Critical Error on My WordPress Site?

You can fix a critical error initially by removing all of your plugins. The error message doesn’t reveal what’s causing the problem, so this is sometimes the only way to log in.

You’ll know that you have a critical error if you receive an email with the subject “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”.

![critical error email](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/critical-error-email.png)

If you didn’t receive the email, we’ll show you how to get your website up and running.

## WordPress Critical Error: How to Log In With No Email

### 1. Manually Deactivate Plugins With cPanel or FTP

If there’s no critical error email, you’ll need to deactivate your plugins manually.

Depending on how you log into your site, there are 2 ways to do this.

#### Deactivating Plugins in cPanel

We’ll use [Bluehost](https://wpmailsmtp.com/go/bluehost/ "BlueHost") as an example for this part of the tutorial. Depending on your host, the process here might look different.

First, log in to your Bluehost account and from the sidebar, click on **Advanced**.

![Bluehost cPanel click on Advanced](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Bluehost-cPanel-click-on-Advanced.png)

This will open cPanel.

Look for the **Files** section and click on the **File Manager** to open your WordPress files directory.

![Bluehost cPanel](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Bluehost-cPanel.png)

Now find **public\_html** and click on it.

![click public html in bluehost cpanel file manager](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/click-public-html-in-bluehost-cpanel-file-manager.png)

Next, search for the folder that matches the name of your site.

![website folder in bluehost cPanel](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/website-folder-in-bluehost-cPanel.png)

When you open up this folder, you’ll see all of the files WordPress needs. It’s super important not to delete or change anything else while we work through this step.

To continue, click the **wp\_content** folder and look for the **plugins** folder inside it.

Right-click on the **plugins** folder and rename it.

![rename plugin folder name](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/rename-plugin-folder-name.png)

Now all plugins on your website are deactivated and you’ll be able to log in to the WordPress dashboard without any issue.

#### Deactivating Plugins With FTP

You can easily bypass the critical error by renaming the plugins folder using FTP.

The process is essentially the same as it would be through cPanel.

Navigate to the **wp\_content** folder and look for the **plugins** folder inside it. Right-click on the folder and rename it.

![WordPress critical error: rename plugins folder with FTP](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/critical-error-rename-plugins-ftp.png)

Now you can log into your dashboard.

Once into the dashboard, go to the plugins page and activate all plugins one by one. The critical error will likely have been caused by a recent plugin installation or update, so if you know which plugin is the culprit, leave that one deactivated for now.

Let’s now solve the email deliverability problem to make sure that the error email is delivered to your inbox.

### 2. Use WP Mail SMTP To Configure SMTP Settings

In this step, we’re going to fix the issue that stopped the critical error email from being delivered.

Email deliverability issues are super common in WordPress. Sometimes you don’t know there’s a problem until an important email goes missing.

WP Mail SMTP will take over the email sending functionality on your site to make sure you always receive critical errors in the future.

#### Install the WP Mail SMTP Plugin

To download the plugin, go to your [WP Mail SMTP account](https://wpmailsmtp.com/account/).

Under the **Downloads** tab, click the orange button to download the most recent version of the plugin.

![Download the WP Mail SMTP plugin](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/download-wp-mail-smtp.png)

Switch to your WordPress dashboard and upload the zip file you just downloaded on the plugins page.

![Install WP Mail SMTP](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/install-wp-mail-smtp.png)

If you are new to WordPress or need help with this part, check out the [guide to installing a WordPress plugin](https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/step-by-step-guide-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin-for-beginners/).

After installing the plugin, make sure to **Activate** it. As soon as you do that, the Setup Wizard will launch in your browser.

The wizard will guide you through the steps of configuring the plugin and connecting it to a mailer service.

#### Connect to a Mailer Service

In this step, we’ll connect your website to a mailer service to fix your WordPress emails.

To begin, click the **Let’s Get Started** button in the wizard.

![click the Let's Get Started button](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/wp-mail-smtp-setup-wizard.png)

Now, you’ll be asked to pick a mailer from the list that WP Mail SMTP supports. The plugin has several free and premium mailer options.

![Select your SMTP mailer](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/SMTP-Email-Setup-Brevo.png)

What you choose will depend on the type of website you have:

- If your website sends occasional emails, a free option like Gmail/Google Workspace will just work fine.
- If you have an eCommerce website, you might want to pick a [transactional email provider](https://wpmailsmtp.com/transactional-email-providers/). We recommend [SendLayer](https://sendlayer.com), [SMTP.com](https://wpmailsmtp.com/go/smtp/ "SMTP.com"), or [Brevo](https://wpmailsmtp.com/go/brevo/ "Brevo(Formerly Sendinblue)") (formerly Sendinblue).

Click the link in the table below to open the documentation for the mailer you’ve chosen.

Mailers available in all versionsMailers in [WP Mail SMTP Pro](https://wpmailsmtp.com/pricing/)[SendLayer](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-sendlayer-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Amazon SES](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-amazon-ses-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[SMTP.com](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-smtp-com-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Microsoft 365 / Outlook.com](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-outlook-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Brevo](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-sendinblue-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Zoho Mail](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-zoho-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Google Workspace / Gmail](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-gmail-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Mailgun](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-mailgun-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Postmark](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-postmark-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[SendGrid](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-sendgrid-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[SparkPost](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-sparkpost-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)[Other SMTP](https://wpmailsmtp.com/docs/how-to-set-up-the-other-smtp-mailer-in-wp-mail-smtp/)Once the connection is made, switch back to this guide to follow the next steps in the wizard.

#### Enable Email Logging (Optional)

In the next step of the wizard, WP Mail SMTP will have two options enabled by default.

- Improved Email Deliverability
- Email Error Tracking

The first option will help improve the deliverability of emails and the second one will check for errors in the background.

The third option is the **Detailed Email Log** feature. If enabled, it’ll track every email sent from your website.

![Enabling email logs and email alerts in the WP Mail SMTP Setup Wizard](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/setup-wizard-enable-features.png)

Enabling Detailed Email Logs will automatically turn on **Complete Email Reports**, too. This will show you a variety of details about your WordPress emails, depending on which other features you’ve enabled.

If you want to receive an overview of your recent emails logs each week, enable the **Weekly Email Summary** option.

Finally, if you want to receive a notification whenever your WordPress site [fails to send an email](https://wpmailsmtp.com/how-to-get-alerts-when-wordpress-emails-fail/), make sure to turn on **Instant Email Alerts**. This will let you know there’s a problem so you can quickly fix it and start sending emails again.

#### Configure Email Logs (Optional)

If you enable email logging, then you’ll have some additional options to consider in the next step of the Setup Wizard. These include:

- **Store the content for all sent emails.** This option will save the content of all your WordPress emails in your site’s database. You need to enable this feature if you want to be able to [resend emails](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wordpress-resend-new-user-email/).
- **Save file attachments sent from WordPress.** When you turn on this setting, all email attachments sent from your site will be saved in the Uploads folder.
- **Track when an email is opened.** Use this feature to see when recipients open your emails to [track engagement](https://wpmailsmtp.com/enable-wordpress-email-tracking/).
- **Track when a link in an email is clicked.** Enable this option to see when recipients click on the links in your emails.

![Configuring email log settings in the WP Mail SMTP Setup Wizard](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/setup-wizard-email-log-settings.png)

Here’s what the log looks like with open and click tracking enabled.

![Opens and clicks in WordPress email log](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/open-click-wordpress-email.png)

If you want to know more about the email logging functionality of WP Mail SMTP, we have a guide that explains [how to log emails in WordPress](https://wpmailsmtp.com/log-emails-wordpress/).

For the final step in the wizard, copy the license key from your [WP Mail SMTP account](https://wpmailsmtp.com/account/) and paste it into the box to enable Pro features and future updates.

![Enter WP Mail SMTP license key](https://wpmailsmtp.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/wp-mail-smtp-license-key.png)

And that’s it. Now, whenever a critical error occurs on your website, you’ll receive an email from WordPress and you won’t need to rename your **plugins** folder.

[Fix Your WordPress Emails Now](https://wpmailsmtp.com/pricing/)

### Next, Check Your DNS Settings

WP Mail SMTP has a Domain Checker that scans your DNS for issues. If you want to get a head start, you can [create a DMARC record for your domain](https://wpmailsmtp.com/how-to-create-dmarc-record/). This will prevent your domain from being used to send phishing emails.

Ready to fix your emails? Get started today with the best WordPress SMTP plugin. [WP Mail SMTP Elite](https://wpmailsmtp.com/pricing) includes full White Glove Setup and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.

If this article helped you out, please follow us on [Facebook](https://facebook.com/wpmailsmtp) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/wpmailsmtp) for more WordPress tips and tutorials.

**Categories:** WordPress Tutorials

**Tags:** Email notifications, WP Mail SMTP

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