How to reset the MySQL root password

The following steps describe the procedure to reset the mysql root password on Linux.

1) Stop the mysql server

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

2) Start the mysql server manually without permission tables which allows us to login as root user without password:

mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

3) Login into mysql as root user without a password and switch to the "mysql" database:

mysql -u root mysql

Then execute this SQL query to set a new password for the mysql root user:

use mysql;
update user set Password=PASSWORD('mynewpassword') WHERE User='root';

(Replace "mynewpassword" with the new root password in the above command).

Then logout from the mysql prompt by typing:

exit

4) Now bring back the running mysql instance into the foreground by typing:

fg

and then press [ctrl] + c to kill the mysql process.

5) Start the mysql server again:

/etc/init.d/mysql start

How to: Reset MySQL root password

Resetting the root password of a MySQL database is trivial if you know the current password if you don’t it is a little trickier. Thankfully it isn’t too difficult to fix, and here we’ll show one possible way of doing so.

If you’ve got access to the root account already, because you know the password, you can change it easily:

gaurav@gaurav:~$ mysql --user=root --pass mysql
Enter password:

mysql> update user set Password=PASSWORD('new-password-here') WHERE User='root';
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.04 sec)
Rows matched: 2  Changed: 2  Warnings: 0

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> exit
Bye

Forget the MySQL root password?

However if you don’t know the current password this approach will not work – you need to login to run any commands and without the password you’ll not be able to login!

Thankfully there is a simple solution to this problem also, we just need to start MySQL with a flag to tell it to ignore any username/password restrictions which might be in place. Once that is done you can successfully update the stored details.

First of all you will need to ensure that your database is stopped:

root@gaurav:~# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Now you should start up the database in the background, via the mysqld_safe command:

root@gaurav:~# /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &
[1] 4271
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
mysqld_safe[6763]: started

Here you can see the new job (number “1”) has started and the server is running with the process ID (PID) of 4271.

Now that the server is running with the –skip-grant-tables flag you can connect to it without a password and complete the job:

root@gaurav:~$ mysql --user=root mysql
Enter password:

mysql> update user set Password=PASSWORD('new-password-here') WHERE User='root';
Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.04 sec)
Rows matched: 2  Changed: 2  Warnings: 0

mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> exit
Bye

Now that you’ve done that you just need to stop the server, so that you can go back to running a secure MySQL server with password restrictions in place. First of all bring the server you started into the foreground by typing “fg”, then kill it by pressing “Ctrl+C” afterward.

This will now allow you to start the server:

root@gaurav:~# /etc/init.d/mysql start
Starting MySQL database server: mysqld.
Checking for corrupt, not cleanly closed and upgrade needing tables..

Now everything should be done and you should have regained access to your MySQL database(s); you should verify this by connecting with your new password:

root@gaurav:~# mysql --user=root --pass=new-password-here
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 5 to server version: 5.0.24a-Debian_4-log

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> exit
Bye

MySQL Change root Password

Setting up mysql password is one of the essential tasks. root user is MySQL admin account. Please note that Linux / UNIX login root account for your operating system and MySQL root are different. They are separate and nothing to do with each other (indeed some admin removes root account and setup admin as mysql super user).

mysqladmin command to change root password

If you have never set a root password for MySQL, the server does not require a password at all for connecting as root. To setup root password for first time, use mysqladmin command at shell prompt as follows:

$ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

However, if you want to change (or update) a root password, then you need to use following command

$ mysqladmin -u root -p oldpassword newpass

Enter password:

Change MySQL password for other user

To change a normal user password you need to type (let us assume you would like to change password for viral):

$ mysqladmin -u viral -p oldpassword newpass

Changing MySQL root user password using mysql sql command

This is another method. MySQL stores username and passwords in user table inside MySQL database. You can directly update password using the following method to update or change password for user viral:

1) Login to mysql server, type following command at shell prompt:

$ mysql -u root -p

2) Use mysql database (type command at mysql> prompt):

mysql> use mysql;

3) Change password for user viral:

mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEWPASSWORD") where User='viral';

4) Reload privileges:

mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit