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How to Reset a WordPress Password from phpMyAdmin

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Do you want to reset your WordPress password using phpMyAdmin?

If you are unable to reset your WordPress password, then there is a way to reset it directly in your WordPress database using phpMyAdmin.

In this article, we will show you how to easily reset a WordPress password from phpMyAdmin.

How to Reset a WordPress Password from phpMyAdmin

Why Reset a WordPress Password From phpMyAdmin?

WordPress makes it super easy to recover a lost password.

You can simply go to the login screen of your WordPress website and click on the ‘Lost your password?’ link.

Click on 'Lost Your Password?'

When you click on the link you are taken to the password reset page. Once you enter your username or email address, WordPress will send a password reset link to the associated email address.

However, if you don’t have access to that email address, or your WordPress site fails to send an email, then you will not be able to reset your password.

In such a situation, you will need to reset your WordPress password directly in the database. The easiest way to do that is by using phpMyAdmin.

Having said that, let’s see how you can easily reset a WordPress password from phpMyAdmin.

How to Reset a WordPress Password From phpMyAdmin

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If you don’t want to watch the video tutorial, then you can continue reading the text version below.

First, you need to log in to the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. Next, you need to navigate to the Databases section where you can click on the phpMyAdmin icon.

phpmyadmin panel in Bluehost

This will launch the phpMyAdmin app.

Here you need to select your WordPress database from the left pane.

Select Your WordPress Database

You will now see the list of tables in your WordPress database.

You need to look for the wp_users table in this list and click on the ‘Browse’ link next to it.

Click the wp_users Browse Link

Note: Table names in your WordPress database may have a different prefix than the one we are showing in our screenshot. Changing table prefixes can improve the security of your WordPress site.

You will now see the rows in your WordPress users table. Go ahead and click on the edit button next to the username whose password you wish to change.

Click the Edit Button Next to the Username

PhpMyAdmin will show you a form with all the user information fields.

You will need to delete the value in the user_pass field and replace it with your new password. Under the function column, select MD5 from the drop-down menu and then click on the Go button at the bottom of the form.

Select MD5 and Type Your New Password

Your password will be encrypted using the MD5 hash and then it will be stored in the database.

Congratulations! You have successfully changed your WordPress password using phpMyAdmin.

Some of you may be wondering why we selected the MD5 hash to encrypt the password. WordPress previously used MD5 hash to encrypt passwords, but since WordPress 2.5 it has been using stronger encryption technologies.

However, WordPress still recognizes MD5 to provide backward compatibility. As soon as you log in using a password string stored as an MD5 hash, WordPress will automatically change it to use the newer encryption algorithms.

Expert Guides on Passwords in WordPress

Now that you know how to reset a WordPress password from phpMyAdmin, you may wish to see some other articles related to passwords in WordPress.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to reset a WordPress password from phpMyAdmin. You may also want to see our ultimate step-by-step WordPress security guide to keep your WordPress site safe or our expert pick of must-have plugins.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

287 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
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  2. NS says

    Thanks! The “MD5” encryption step is what I was missing when I tried to reset. Then I came across your article and tried it and it worked! You just saved me hours and hours of time and a potentially angry client.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If your changes are not staying, you would likely want to check with your hosting provider to ensure you’re not running into a security tool blocking your change. Another common issue would be if you have a staging site or an old database for a previous site so you would want to ensure you are changing the information for your correct site.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It would depend on what part didn’t work. The most common reasons would be if you did not save your changes or did not convert to MD5

      Admin

  3. Aikya Dasgupta says

    Thank you very much. This worked for me and I am now able to access my WordPress dashboard.

  4. John says

    Perfect – saved me from a big issue.. thanks! Now, about getting those WP system emails working again…………….!

  5. jackie says

    REALLY helpful. I’ve been struggling for weeks and now i can finally log in again! thanks a lot!

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You may want to ensure you set the password to MD5 and that you are editing the correct user file if you have multiple WordPress sites or users

      Admin

  6. Taylor says

    I have followed these steps and the password was generated however, whenever I put in the password it still says it is incorrect.

    Any help you can provide ?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to double-check that you encrypted the password using MD5 as the most common reason

      Admin

  7. Hazel Pan says

    Thank you for this noob-friendly guide! I was able to understand how to fix my issue right away. It also helped that I had awesome support from my hosting provider, Namecheap.

  8. Umar Gondal says

    May Allah bless you with eman. This article helped me to reset password of my website. Very informative article

  9. Ajit Kumar says

    The email could not be sent. Possible reason: your host may have disabled the mail() function.

    error shows

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If you have that error on your site, you would want to start by reaching out to your hosting provider.

      Admin

  10. George says

    Great article, I can see how this “can” work, but didn’t work for us either!!!!! We have access to the registrar, access to the domain and web hosting, full access to file manager, phpMyAdmin and the Installatron.

    Followed your instructions to the T, didn’t work. We even changed the email in the email field. Its like the script didn’t update.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If this method didn’t work then you likely need to reach out to your hosting provider and your host should be able to assist in fixing this issue.

      Admin

  11. Van says

    This didn’t work for me. I’ve tried changing my password via my profile in WP Admin and using this technique; neither worked. WordPress 5 bug?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You may want to clear your cache on your site and browser and check with your hosting provider that they are not preventing changes to your site’s database.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      If this method does not work, if you reach out to your hosting provider they should be able to help you log back into your site.

      Admin

  12. Naveeen says

    Awesome. Worked like magic.
    Nice video and tut. Had exact problem with the password. Solved with this tut. Thank you very much.

  13. joe capels says

    Dude thanks .I was about to redo the entire thing from scratch and funny what i did this website some 10 yrs ago and its ranking on SEO is pretty great -was freakin worried !

  14. Adam Vaughan-Williams says

    Awesome!! Yes worked weil but the presenter of the video speaks too fast and had to keep going back. The instructions worked well though,
    Thankyou :)

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