HOW TO: Reset a WordPress Password with phpMyadmin
To reset a WordPress Password with phpMyadmin, you would need to take a few steps. In other words, you need to access PHPMyAdmin and then enter a new password.
In this article, we will show you how to perform these simple actions in detail.
i) Access phpMyAdmin
These steps explain how to access phpMyAdmin.
- From your account cpanel, go to the databases group of icons, and click on phpMyAdmin
- When prompted login with your cpanel username and password.
- From the list of databases, select the database for your WordPress site.
ii) Enter a New Password
These steps explain how to change the password in the database.
- In the table list, click on the users table
Note: In our example, the table prefix is “wp_” the prefix varies from site to site so don’t worry if yours is different. - Click edit next to the user you want to set the password for.
- Enter the new password into the password box
- In the function box next to the password choose MD5
- Click Go
Congratulations! You have successfully changed your WordPress password using phpMyAdmin. So, you can now login to WordPress with your new password.
Why You Should Reset a WordPress Password
There are several reasons why you would need to reset a WordPress password. If your website ever gets hacked, or for some reason, you cannot log in back to your website, the only way back in is to reset the WordPress password.
There are several methods you can use to reset a WordPress password for a specific account. You can reset a WordPress password using FTP, or as explained in this article, you can reset the WordPress password using the phpMyAdmin web interface. Follow the three easy steps in this WordPress admin tip to reset a WordPress password within a minute and gain back access to your WordPress blog or website.
Extra information
Your password is encrypted using the MD5 hash and stored in the database. However, some of you may be wondering the reason to select the MD5 hash to encrypt the password.
In the older version, WordPress used the MD5 hash to encrypt passwords. Since WordPress 2.5, it started 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 recognizes it and changes it using the newer encryption algorithms.
