Resetting forgotten phpmyadmin password

Question

I recently installed LAMP on Ubuntu 13.04(32-bit) but forgot my phpMyAdmin password. How can I reset its password without re-installing it?

For people having issues with the current accepted answer. I suggest checking out the DigitalOcean article [How To Reset Your MySQL or MariaDB Root Password](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-reset-your-mysql-or-mariadb-root-password) — 3limin4t0r, Nov 10 '22 at 11:45

score 44 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 06 '15 at 17:16

44

Simply change or reset your MySQL root password by doing the following:

Stop the MySQL server
```
sudo service mysql stop
```
Start mysqld
```
sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables &
```
Login to MySQL as root
```
mysql -u root mysql
```

Change MYSECRET with your new root password

UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('MYSECRET') WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;

Kill mysqld
```
sudo pkill mysqld
```
Start mysql
```
sudo service mysql start
```
Login to phpmyadmin as root with your new password

edited Dec 06 '15 at 17:16

Seth

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answered Jul 19 '13 at 17:35

jctoledo

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Can you please explain the use of #2 Start mysqld? Also, how will I be able to execute #3 since I don't remember my MySQL password anymore? – tHe_VaGaBonD Jul 22 '13 at 16:40
1

The idea for #2 is that you are spawning a version of the MySQL daemon *without* a password. This allows you to reset it on step 4. – jctoledo Aug 06 '13 at 15:54
Using Ubuntu 16 I was not able to run mysqld manually - trying to create socket and socket lock file in a dir that didn't even exist! But if you look at the very NEXT answer (which is not the accepted answer) that is what I needed - I stupidly forgot the password for the phpmyadmin user, and there it is, in plain text, in the phpmyadmin.conf folder! – Brian B Sep 06 '17 at 18:09
ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'Password' in 'field list' – Tiago Gouvêa Dec 26 '18 at 17:04
I get `2020-09-22 10:40:17 140163612645568 [Note] mysqld (mysqld 10.2.14-MariaDB) starting as process 23841 ... mysqld: Please consult the Knowledge Base to find out how to run mysqld as root! 2020-09-22 10:40:17 140163612645568 [ERROR] Aborting ` at step **2** – Black Sep 22 '20 at 08:40
You might want to use the command `sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables --user=root &` for the second step, as stated [in this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/60559556/4215651). – MAChitgarha Jul 13 '21 at 18:43
Also, for newer versions of MySQL, or if you're encountering errors relating to the password field (i.e. syntax errors), you should try `UPDATE mysql.user SET authentication_string=null WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILAGES; exit;` for the third step. See [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/63716361/4215651). – MAChitgarha Jul 13 '21 at 19:08

score 38 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 19 '16 at 08:21

38

You don't actually need to reset your username and password, if you can see them.

In your terminal window, type:

sudo -H gedit /etc/dbconfig-common/phpmyadmin.conf

This will open your phpmyadmin configurations.

There, you will see your username under dbc_dbuser='your_username' and password under dbc_dbpass='your_password'.

edited Feb 19 '16 at 08:21

muru

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answered Feb 19 '16 at 07:12

lordparthurnaax

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I could not able to find **/etc/dbconfig-common/ ** path. Both "MySQL Database" & "Apache Web Server" running successfully. Any suggestion !! This I'm trying to work on Wordpress. – CoDe Aug 01 '16 at 09:41
1

Don't forget to restart mysql " sudo service mysql restart " – Mansour Alnasser Aug 24 '16 at 15:15
1

I found a user called `phpmyadmin`, but not my main `root` user. That user also did not have permissions to add new users or databases! – Yahya Uddin Aug 24 '16 at 22:57
1

Nice solution ! – ivva Feb 26 '18 at 17:14
I get `Directory '/etc/dbconfig-common' does not exist` – Black Sep 22 '20 at 08:42

score 9 · Answer 3 · edited May 03 '19 at 16:26

There is a workaround on Debian (Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) where there is a second admin account automatically generated by the system called

debian-sys-maint

You can see (and should not change) its password via

sudo nano /etc/mysql/debian.cnf

It is possible (sure on Ubuntu 16.04) to use that account both in phpMyAdmin as well as in the command line

mysql -u debian-sys-maint -p

The account has exactly the same privileges as phpMyAdmin's / MySQL's root.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 22 '20 at 08:52

0

I was wondering why my login was failing even though I never changed the password.

It was failing because I rebootet the server and the mysql server was not startet automatically. So I startet the server and it worked again.

answered Sep 22 '20 at 08:52

Black

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Resetting forgotten phpmyadmin password

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