The Problem
You try to login to your WordPress site at www.mysite.com/wp-admin and get redirected to www.mysite.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php?_wp_http_referer=%2Fwp-admin%2F
You see the message “No Update Required. Your WordPress database is already up-to-date” You press “Continue” but instead of going to the login screen you find yourself on the home page. It’s a loop.
The Solution
Memcache on your server is likely the cause and needs flushing. Memcache speeds up database calls by storing data in the server’s RAM to reduce the number of times a database is queried.
If your host is SiteGround (the Grow Big or Go Geek plans) you can login to your cPanel go to SuperCacher and “flush” your Memcache there. Memcache is generally not available on shared hosting, but it is with SiteGround.
If you don’t have Memcache try disabling any caching programs you have via an ftp program (like FileZilla) by going to /public_html/wp-content/plugins/your cache program and rename the folder. You do this by right clicking on the folder (as below) and add a digit to the end of the folder name. My caching program here is WP Rocket, but you may have something like the popular WP Cache or W3 Total Cache plugins.
You could also rename the entire plugins folder if you think other plugins could also be caching.
Finally you could try manually uploading a fresh install of WordPress via ftp. You only need to drag the unzipped WordPress folder to the root of your site and allow all overwriting when prompted. Failing this it could be time to call your hosting company.
I build websites at WP Corner Shop and travel. I also co-host a weekly WordPress podcast called WP Builds and make YouTube videos.
Thanks a lot. Flushing the cache on SiteGround did the trick!
Hey thanks Jon. I really appreciate your comment to let me know :-)
Same here. It worked on my blog. Thanks.
Whoops – sorry Carolyn. I missed this. Thanks for letting me know.
Hi David, the Siteground flush did the job – thanks for your help.
The struggle is real!
Thanks so much for your help.
THANK YOU. gosh darn it. Thank you. I forgot that we had MAX CDN enabled – i had to go into my settings and purge cache
Superb. Siteground user – solved the problem in 20 seconds thanks to your post.
Thanks so much.
Thanks, this was a great help. I upgraded to WordPress 5 the other day, and the first thing I saw was the seemingly infinite loop telling me my WordPress was already up-to-date. I’m not a WordPress expert, so this was extremely worrisome.
I found your post, and since I’m a Siteground user, I flushed the three levels of cache in the “Supercacher”, and then my site was back to normal.
Thank you David, you saved me a lot of troubleshooting time! Cheers!
And thank you too for taking the time to comment. Appreciated :-)
Thanks, it was really that easy – and NOTHING is ever that easy!
Thank you! So easy and it’s fixed now.
Thank you!
I had the same issue but not related to Memcache. The cause turned out to be the W3 Total Cache plugin. I deleted the files inside the wp-content/cache folder, that solved the problem. No deactivation of plugins was necessary.
Thanks, Christoph. Good problem-solving. W3 Total Cache was always too much for me.
Thanks for sharing this.
Ran into this loop nightmare after a recent update and was scratching my head for hours. Your post was a lifesaver, David! Flushing the cache was the golden ticket. For anyone else struggling with site issues, checking out this comprehensive study on the on-demand app industry might give you some insights into optimizing your WordPress site for better performance: https://attractgroup.com/blog/the-on-demand-app-industry-a-comprehensive-study/. Cheers for the help!