How to reset forgotten WordPress admin password

Did you forget your WordPress admin password and would like to reset it?. In this guide, I’ll show you three ways to reset a forgotten WordPress CMS admin password. The same procedures can be used for other WordPress profile user accounts.

These are the methods you can use to reset WordPress admin password:

1. Ret WordPress admin password from MySQL CLI
2. Ret WordPress admin password using MySQL phpMyAdmin interface ( Common on Cpanel and other shared hosting platforms)
3. Reset WordPress admin password  using “Lost your password?” link on the login page

Method 1: Ret WordPress admin password from MySQL CLI

This is the easiest method if you have access to MySQL CLI. Login to mysql database using a user account with the privileges to manage wordpress database.

$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 8325
Server version: 10.3.9-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

Confirm your WordPress database. For me this is wp_db

MariaDB [(none)]> show databases;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| wp_db              |
| mysql              |
| performance_schema |
+--------------------+
5 rows in set (0.008 sec)

Switch to the database and list tables

MariaDB [(none)]> use wp_db;
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
MariaDB [wp_db]> show tables;
+-----------------------+
| Tables_in_wp_db       |
+-----------------------+
| wp_commentmeta        |
| wp_comments           |
| wp_links              |
| wp_options            |
| wp_postmeta           |
| wp_posts              |
| wp_term_relationships |
| wp_term_taxonomy      |
| wp_termmeta           |
| wp_terms              |
| wp_usermeta           |
| wp_users              |
| wp_yoast_seo_links    |
| wp_yoast_seo_meta     |
+-----------------------+
14 rows in set (0.000 sec)

To show the current user hashed password, use:

MariaDB [wp_admin]> select id,user_login,user_pass from wp_users;
+----+------------+-------------------------------------------+
| id | user_login | user_pass                                 |
+----+------------+-------------------------------------------+
|  1 | admin      | *BD2AEAC78A6C6B56C3496A341925C581C62E4518 |
+----+------------+-------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

Finally, update the password using:

> UPDATE wp_users SET user_pass=MD5('NewPassword') where id=1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.014 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

You can also use the online md5 Hash Generator or generate hashed password prior to updating it manually.

$ echo "NewPass" > /tmp/pass
$ tr -d '\r\n' < /tmp/pass| md5sum | tr -d ' -'
62e505a5781054d9701d44802c75cba2

Then change it by resetting with the hashed password:

> UPDATE wp_users SET user_pass='62e505a5781054d9701d44802c75cba2' where id=1;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.014 sec)
Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0

Method 2: Ret WordPress admin password from MySQL phpMyAdmin interface

Login to your phpMyAdmin interface.

• Select the database on the left navigation pane.
• Click on the wordpress users‘ table
• Select the user you want to change the password for, click edit
• Select MD5 function for user_pass field and provide a password

• Save changes

Method 3:  Reset WordPress admin password  using “Lost your password?” link

This only works if you have the username and email address for the admin account. Use the “lost password” WordPress feature.

• Navigate to the WordPress Login page e.g  http://mysite.com/wp-login.php)
• Click on the link Lost your password?

• Enter your account email address on the next page.
• A new password will be emailed to you.
• Login with the emailed password and change it to something you can remember.