A recent update to the excellent WordPress plugin IQ Block Country has resulted in a problem – IQ Block Country preventing access to WordPress admin.

The symptoms are that you can see your main website, but that your admin gives a blank screen.

I am not sure if it is related to an update of the plugin itself, or of updating the files that are required to be uploaded regularly (the GeoIP files) to keep the IP country information up to date.

Either way, here is what needs to be done to fix it.  If you are maintaining your own site, this should be within your skill set.

In an emergency, simply go to ftp and rename the IQ Block Country plugin to something else.  However, this will mean you are no longer protected.

A better solution is to go to phpMyAdmin and look in your options table for an entry called blockcountry_backendwhitelist .  Add your IP address (see http://whatsmyip.net to find out what this is) to the end of the record, making sure there is a ; between the last one and yours.

This should let you back into your admin.  If you have an internet setup in which your IP address changes often, you should also make sure that your country is selected as allowed in the regular IQ Block Country backend selection screen.

If you are a client using my After Sales Service, feel free to contact me through the Help Desk if you are having trouble with IQ Block Country preventing access to WordPress admin.