How to Reset a MySQL Password

A MySQL password can be reset in 5 easy steps:

  1. Stop the mysqld daemon process.
  2. Start the mysqld daemon process with the –skip-grant-tables option.
  3. Start the mysql client with the -u root option.
  4. Execute the UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘password’) WHERE User=’root’;
  5. Execute the FLUSH PRIVILEGES; command.

These steps reset the password for the “root” account to “password.” To change the password for a different account or to set a different password, just edit the variables in single quotes in step 4.

If the user knows his/her existing MySQL root password, steps 1-3 are not necessary.

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  • Abdullah Ramadan

    very useful

  • elrando

    8) Thank you very much, I finally can login to my phpmyadmin. Thank you for blessing the internet with actual real and useful information.

  • john

    Hi i would like to know how to make my mysql console stop asking for password.When i installed mysql firsttime i could login directly without a password.I do know my current password but would like to go back to as it were.
    Thanks in advance!

  • andrei

    It doesn’t work, nothing happens after I type UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘password’) WHERE User=’root’; My console changes from ‘mysql>’ to ‘`>’ and that’s all.

    • andrei

      You might have a syntax error in the command at step 4, it should be

      UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(“password”) WHERE User=”root”;
      This works for me. Cheers ;)

  • andrei

    I mean, there should be double-quotes instead of single-quotes, seems like my command line makes a difference on this…

    • memenode

      I’m guessing either will be fine depending on context. Did single quotes work for anyone else?

  • vinyll

    Correct single quotes work, but not the one used in the blog post. This works indeed (regular single quotes here) :

    UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘password’) WHERE User=’root’; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

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