Reset your WordPress Admin Password

Did you forget your WordPress password or want to change your existing password? Don’t worry, there are several ways to reset the password so you can get back to business.

Change WordPress admin password from WordPress dashboard

First we will deal with how to change the admin password if you have access to your WordPress account.

  1. Access the WordPress dashboard. Generally this can be done by using example.com/wp-admin (example.com is replaced by your website’s domain name)

  2. Enter your admin username and password and log in

  3. Click on Users in the left hand menu

  4. Hover your cursor over the admin user and click Edit

  5. Scroll down to Account management

  6. Click on Generate password

  7. You will be provided with a secure password that you may change as you wish.  Make sure that your password is strong (green), indicated by the strength box.

  8. Click Update profile

Reset WordPress password through email

If you have forgotten your WordPress password but you have access to your WordPress user’s email address, you can reset your password through the “Lost password” email reset link.

  1. Go to your WordPress admin login page. This can be done by using example.com/wp-admin (replace example.com with the domain name of your website)

  2. Click Lost your password? underneath the login box

  3. Enter the email or username connected to your WordPress account

  4. Click Get new password

  5. You will receive an email containing a link to reset your password. Click the link

  6. Enter your new password and click Reset password

Reset WordPress password through a file

Warning: for advanced users only

If you have forgotten your WordPress password but you have access to your WordPress files, either by (S)FTP or through the File Manager or the command line, you can manually reset its password as follows:

  1. Locate the functions.php file of your current active theme. For most, it will be located in: public_html/wp-content/themes/THEMENAME/functions.php

  2. Open the file in edit mode
  3. Copy and paste the following line of code right at the beginning of the functions.php file, after the first <?php tag:

    wp_set_password( 'NEWPASSWORD', 1 );

    Replace NEWPASSWORD with your new password. Keep the 1 as such; it's the ID of your primary WordPress user

  4. Save the file; upload it to the server if using (S)FTP
  5. Log in to WordPress Admin using the password you set above

  6. Once you're in, remove the line of code you added in step 3 from the functions.php

Reset WordPress password through cPanel’s 1-click Apps (Softaculous)

If you’ve installed WordPress through our 1-click Apps Installer (Softaculous), you may be able to easily change its password through your cPanel.

  1. Log in to your cpanel account

  2. Click 1-click app installer under popular tools

  3. Click the WordPress icon

  4. Under Current installations click the Edit icon of your admin account

  5. Under Admin account enter your admin username in the area indicated

  6. In Admin password type your new password

  7. Go to the bottom of the screen and click Save installation details

Reset WordPress password through phpMyAdmin

This method allows you to change your password in the database with the program phpMyAdmin.

Please remember to back up your database before making any changes.
  1. Access your cPanel account

  2. In the Databases section, click phpMyAdmin

  3. In the left-hand pane, find your WordPress database. It should appear as yourcpanelusername_wpXXX , i.e. your cPanel username followed by _wp and several digits.

    Do you have multiple WordPress installations on your account? Here is how to determine which database to modify.

  4. Click on the WordPress database identified in the previous step

  5. In the dropdown menu, click on wp_users.  This is a generic database name; yours may be a different but should still contain the elements of wp_users, such as wppy_users or wp_xyz_users.

  6. Under user_login find your admin username (often admin)

  7. Click Edit

  8. Find user_pass and under the value column type in the password you wish to use

  9. Under the function column, select MD5

  10. Click Go

 

 
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