So you forgot your WordPress password, right? But you also don’t have the access to your email address registered with the WordPress account. If you have access to the phpMyAdmin tool that comes with most of the managed web hosting providers such as Siteground or Bluehost, you can easily reset the WordPress password. In this article, we are going to list the complete list of steps that you have to follow to gain access to the WordPress backend by resetting your WordPress profile password using phpMyAdmin.
What is phpMyAdmin?
phpMyAdmin is a web interface that allows users to manage their MySQL or MariaDB Database. Users can create manage, and delete databases and tables, as well as user accounts using phpMyAdmin. If you have phpMyAdmin installed on your web server where your WordPress website is installed, that means you can use the tool to edit your databases. This can be highly beneficial if you forgot your password, and you don’t have a strong command of using the MySQL CLI.
Reason to update WordPress password with phpMyAdmin
While there are multiple methods to reset your WordPress password, why should you depend on phpMyAdmin to reset it? The answer is obvious. Because none of the other methods are working for you.
We have recently discussed resetting WordPress password without email. In that article, one of the methods were using phpMyAdmin for the purpose. So, as you may have already guessed, if you don’t have access to your WordPress email, or your web server cannot send the reset password link, you can use phpMyAdmin to reset it.
Steps to Reset Password in WordPress using phpMyAdmin
Most of the managed WordPress web hosting providers come with cPanel or similar dashboard where you can find phpMyAdmin tool.
- Open phpMyAdmin.
- Click on the database table on the left side.
- Now click on wp_users table on the right side.
- Click Edit besides the user you want to reset the password of.
- Enter your new password in the user_pass field.
- Choose MD5 in dropdown menu.
- Click Go.
You will get a success message in green color and the password of the user has been successfully edited using phpMyAdmin. Be sure to note down the password somewhere or use a password manager to avoid repeating this over again.
Is it safe to use phpMyAdmin to reset password?
It is safe as long as you do not make any other changes to the database tables. Be extremely careful while playing with the database and edit the correct sections as mentioned in the steps. If you do anything wrong, your site or functionalities may break. If you are not sure, you can take a database backup from your host before attempting to change the password by editing it.
phpMyadmin is like a database management tool that allows you to edit your database. That means, you do not necessarily need to use the tool to make changes if your host provides a separate tool that can edit the database tables.
Many hosting provides like Cloudways provide such database management utilities that can edit your database tables without phpMyAdmin. But I would recommend using phpMyAdmin for performing actions related to databases as it will be more stable than the newer tools developed by the hosts. So, the next time you are locked out of the WordPress admin section, use phpMyAdmin.
