How to Reset Forgotten WordPress Passwords

WordPress is arguably the most popular content management system today. With new users and students using it for blogging and managing websites, some tips and tricks may be helpful for them to use, like resetting forgotten passwords.

This brief post shows users how to change forgotten passwords in WordPress. If one forgets their Password, there are many ways to recover or reset it. However, some hosts prevent using the mail() function, or users with forgotten passwords may not have access to the email address associated with their account.

If you are in a similar situation, follow the steps below to learn how to reset forgotten WordPress passwords easily.

Reset Password from WordPress Admin Dashboard

Users can reset their Password in WordPress from the admin dashboard. This only works if the user(s) can access the WordPress admin area.

Users can reset their Password by logging in to their account, going to Dashboard -->  Profile --> Select their account and generate a new password under Account Management.

Resetting Forgotten Password

Users can reset forgotten passwords from the login page. Just click the Log your Password. Link to reset. For this to work, your host must enable the mail() function, and the user’s email address must be valid and accessible. Without those two things, the method will not work.

Reset Password using phpMyAdmin (cPanel)

Another way one can reset their Password is via phpMyAdmin via cPanel. Most hosts provide cPanel access to users to manage their domain and content. To reset your WordPress password via phpMyAdmin, log on to cPanel or directly to phpMyAdmin.

Then navigate to the Database section and select phpMyAdmin

Select and expand the WordPress database when it opens and click the wp_users table. This should list the users. Next to the user with a lost password, select the Edit link.

On the next page, find the user_pass column, change the Function to MD5, type a new password in the value field, and click Go.

When you click Go. It should update the password table with the new one.

Resetting WordPress Password from MySQL

Another way to reset one’s WordPress password is using MySQL or MariaDB SQL command. Run the commands below to log on to the database.

sudo mysql -u root -p

Then, run the commands below to select the WordPress database named wpdb and change it to what you called your WordPress.

use wpdb;

Run the commands below to change the Password for the user-named demo. First, change the name to what you call it.

UPDATE wp_users SET user_pass = MD5('new_password_here') WHERE user_login = demo;

This should change the Password for the username demo.

That’s it!