Problem on wordpress Digital Ocean Droplet One-Click

Hi there,

This “old message to setup WordPress” on the Droplet IP is usually the normal 1-Click placeholder page that stays in place until the 1-Click setup script has been completed from SSH, or until the web server is actually pointing at the WordPress vhost/site. DigitalOcean’s own 1-Click guide shows that the placeholder is expected “until you log in with SSH” and complete the prompts.

The fastest way to fix it is to re-run the 1-Click WordPress setup tool on the server and make sure your domain/subdomain DNS is actually pointing at the Droplet.

SSH in, then run the setup again:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

# try the built-in 1-click message/tool (one of these usually exists)
sudo /usr/local/bin/wordpress-setup 2>/dev/null || true
sudo /opt/digitalocean/bin/wordpress-setup 2>/dev/null || true

# if neither exists, just look for the 1-click helper:
ls -la /opt/digitalocean/bin/ 2>/dev/null

Then confirm WordPress is installed and the web server is serving it (pick the one you have):

# Apache:
sudo apache2ctl -S

# Nginx:
sudo nginx -T | sed -n '1,200p'

For the subdomain not working, the most common cause is simply DNS: your A record for the subdomain must point to the Droplet IP, and it can take time to propagate.

If you changed the site URL to the subdomain and it broke access, you can temporarily force WordPress to the correct URL in wp-config.php:

define('WP_HOME', 'https://dev.yoursite.com');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'https://dev.yoursite.com');

That’s a common recovery approach on DO WordPress installs.

If you paste the exact “old message” you’re seeing (or a screenshot), and tell me whether your 1-Click is the Apache-based or Nginx-based image, I can point you to the exact file/vhost that still serves the placeholder.

Hope that this helps!

Hi there,

With the WordPress one-click Droplet, that usually happens when the web server is still pointing to the default WordPress install path, or the domain/subdomain isn’t mapped to the Droplet correctly yet.

First, I’d double-check the DNS. Make sure your domain or subdomain has an A record pointing to the Droplet’s public IP, and give it a bit of time to propagate. Until DNS is correct, WordPress will often keep showing the setup or default page.

On the Droplet itself, the one-click image installs WordPress under /var/www/html by default. If you changed paths or virtual host settings, the web server may still be serving the original location. Checking the NGINX or Apache config and confirming the document root matches the WordPress install is important.

Another common cause is the site URL settings inside WordPress. If WordPress is still configured to use the IP address instead of the domain, it can behave exactly like this. You can check and fix this via wp-config.php or using WP-CLI.