Upgrading from DNN 4.4.1 to 4.5.0 was a breeze but admin and host login failed. Does anyone have the same problem?

Thanks a lot for reminding me about the MachineKeys. After merging machine keys settings ( validationKey and decryptionKey )from the old web.config everything got back to normal, in fact better than normal with new and cool features of DNN 4.5.0. Thanks again Mikeh and have a good day!

I have the same issue with the Host and Admin.  I think I copied the machine keys from my 4.4.1 installation, but will check again.  Hopefully this is the issue!  It took me hours to FTP my site to my local machine for backup (along with a database backup), and then FTP the new upgrade files for v4.5.  I should have taken the site off-line and am concerned that someone unintentionally may have initiated the upgrade by navigating to their portal's home page prior to all new website files being uploaded.  I have auto update set to true, but navigating to my site did not kick off an upgrade, and running the installation wizard from the install directory (i.e. manually) although showing the "Next" button gave me a message to the extent that the site is already upgraded, which would make sense.

*Could I ask if anyone has an FTP program they are happy with?  I am using CuteFTP v8 which is easy enough to use, but it either disconnects or fails to upload files - and it seems to take for ever for a site that isn't that big.

Thanks,

John