Lost WordPress Admin Password and Email? How to get back into your weblog…

October 19th, 2007

What should you do if you've forgotten or lost your WordPress Admin password?

Step one of course would be to fill in your username and your email into the lost password form.

But what if you don't know one of either your username or your email?

Are you out of luck?

Not if you have admin access to your server.

First things first.

login to your server admin account (cPanel, Hsphere, Plesk, etc...)
open up PHP MyAdmin (see your host's help file)
open up your WordPress weblog database
don't panic when you see the complicated screen
click on wp_users in the left hand column
choose browse from the top menu
you will see all your users with usernames and passwords
go back to the login screen
request a new password
if necessary modify the email to one which will come to you

If you want to make your life miserable you can replace the hash key instead and login directly. But why bother when you can just go back to using the standard interface.

I'm sure I've saved at least one person a call to his or her server admin with this info.

Enjoy posting in your newly recovered WordPress weblog!

By Alec

Tags: phpmyadmin, WordPress, wordpress admin, wordpress security

WordPress | Comments | Trackback

36 comments on “Lost WordPress Admin Password and Email? How to get back into your weblog…”

01

Thanks man you just helped me, btw i wondered why my wordpress doesn’t want to send the password to my email and it send it to my gmail account ?

Sidi Ethmane at March 31st, 2008 around 4:50 am
02

I guess that’s because you must have used Gmail id in your profile rather than your other email. Wordpress always sends to email mentioned in your profile.

Rohit at June 10th, 2008 around 10:15 pm
03

Hi Alec,

I just tried above “steps”, but I could not make it work?!

I made it till step no. 7, but when I go back and request a new password it just sends the same password and activation key (which doesn’t work) to my email.

You can try it yourself if you want: http://www.bodyfitdk.dk/wp-login.php?action=rp&key=61e1b96b

Can I just edit the password for the user via the PHP MyAdmin?

Best regards

Claus

Claus Jensen at June 11th, 2008 around 4:24 am
04

Thanks Rohit, you’re absolutely right.

Hello Claus,

Yes, you can edit the password for the user via PHP Admin but you have to edit it as a hash key. I’ve linked to instructions above.

Good luck!

PS. There seems to be something wrong with your Wordpress install as these instructions should work without having to edit the password directly.

alec at June 11th, 2008 around 4:45 am
05

Hi!

I hope your info will help.

I’m using WP, hosted on Godaddy.

If I understand correctly, I can log into my Godaddy account and fix this – correct?

Thanks,
Fred

Fred at August 28th, 2008 around 1:10 pm
06

Hi Fred,

If you have PHP MyAdmin over at GoDaddy, yes. I don’t have GoDaddy hosting and from my frustrating experiences administering domains at GoDaddy don’t plan to (ads and popups all over the place). It’s quite possible that you don’t have an easy way to administer your database at GoDaddy.

But I’m hoping for the best for you. Good luck.

alec at August 28th, 2008 around 2:00 pm
07

I lost my Wordpress password and the email account I used no longer exists. I’d like to follow your instructions, but I don’t even understand step 1. What’s a server admin account? I never saw the names cPanel, Hsphere, Plesk… Sorry for being such a nongeek. Is there still hope?

Odile Brock at September 14th, 2008 around 8:12 am
08

Thanks mate your a life saver, well time saver.

Anyway your advice worked.

Cheers

Lawrie from Ozz at September 14th, 2008 around 8:04 pm
09

Glad it helped Lawrie.

Odile, I’m sorry but this technique requires a basic knowledge of how to administer a web hosting account. If you are still having issues, you could send a link to this article to your server help desk and ask them to follow the steps for you.

Depending on your hosting company, they will do this for you or not. I recommend Cartika as they do help with admin when you need it.

alec at September 24th, 2008 around 7:31 am
10

Thank you for this post! Worked like a charm and I’m back to blogging.

Kevin McNeese at October 13th, 2008 around 4:14 pm
11

Thanks, everyone, I did write to the server and they sent me a new password.

Odile

Odile at October 14th, 2008 around 7:48 am
12

Great advice, thanks! You just saved me a lot of time and frustration with this post!

Mark Falco at October 15th, 2008 around 3:07 pm
13

How about if I have a blog that is for now only local (mail not configured) – then what?

doug at October 29th, 2008 around 8:54 pm
14

Hello Doug,

Replace the hash key and log in directly. Instructions linked above. I’d be surprised if your local weblog can’t mail but I suppose it depends on configuration.

alec at October 30th, 2008 around 5:47 am
15

Great Tip.
Saved me a lot of time.

Mike at November 3rd, 2008 around 6:03 am
16

Thanks Man.

It worked for me.

Wish you luck !

Ansari Samir at February 5th, 2009 around 1:59 am
17

Thanks for this! I was trying to get into a neglected site and for the life of me I couldn’t remember my username or password. Just opening PHP MyAdmin and seeing the username tripped the memory locks and I remembered the password!

Patty at February 17th, 2009 around 6:45 pm
18

Hello Patty,

That’s wonderful that you were able to remember. Learning the basics of phpAdmin can be a great help as a webmaster.

alec at February 18th, 2009 around 3:56 am
19

hey man,….thanks for saving me another five hours of stress this afternoon….

pages like this make me believe in the goodness of people…

little bits of knowledge that help for free….

t.

thank you thank you thank you..!!!!! at February 18th, 2009 around 7:13 pm
20

Help! I have followed the instructions above and changed the email address to another one in hopes of getting the password emailed to me. I went back requested a new password and waited. No email.

I should mention that I can get the password reset emails from WordPress but when I clicked the link to reset the password, I am taken to the Wordpress Log-in screen but a little red box appears and say “Sorry, that key does not appear to be valid”. So, I can’t reset the password. I have reset it successfully in the past. Any ideas for me?

Elizabeth at February 27th, 2009 around 2:12 pm
21

Hello Elizabeth,

That is very strange.

If you ever figure out why you can’t login with the mailed out key, please let us know. It’s almost as if you have two versions of Wordpress running mixed up (which use different key systems).

Good luck!

alec at March 2nd, 2009 around 9:14 am
22

[...] How to recover a Lost WordPress Admin Password and Email (tags: howto recovery blog stuff wordpress password) [...]

links for 2009-03-03 « Where Is All This Leading To? at March 3rd, 2009 around 5:07 pm
23

Thanks. It’s really easy to use the lost password interface but my problem is the reset link can’t get though because it won’t recognize the key. I still can’t reset the password.

Friendster at April 22nd, 2009 around 10:48 pm
24

Thank you so much for writing this. I had this exact situation and was just about to uninstall wordpress and re-install it before I read this. You are a life saver!

Erica

Erica at May 9th, 2009 around 6:23 am
25

Thanks all I had to do was check in phpmyadmin and look for the email that the password was sent to , worked like a charm .

Threads at June 8th, 2009 around 10:50 am
26

All i can say is life saving SPOT ON!

Andy at June 19th, 2009 around 1:49 pm
27

Thank you very much for your clear and concise intructions. You are a star!

Andre at June 20th, 2009 around 4:40 am
28

Didn’t work for me either. Installation on Ubuntu, no e-mail configured. Changing password in phpmyadmin didn’t work either. I guess a reinstall is required?

The link above just goes to Main Page, am I missing something?

JJ at August 12th, 2009 around 11:45 am
29

Hi JJ,

Next time, include an email when setting up an admin account.

For the reinstall just backup your WP Content first. You should be able to move everything except the users table across from your existing database.

Sorry about the incorrect link in the Codex. I think it must have been changed.

Let us know if you figure out what was wrong and are able to get back in.

alec at August 13th, 2009 around 1:45 am
30

thank you so much .. I set up a wordpress installation for someone else and didn’t change the password because I wanted to let the other person choose the password. You can imagine how stupid I felt when i couldn’t find the standart password anywhere ..

you really helped me out.

adorna at September 1st, 2009 around 4:52 am
31

Thank you very much for this, it saved me from trying to contact my webhost over Christmas!

Anna, it seems the site in your URL field doesn’t even run Wordpress.

Happy New Year anyway.

Alec

Anna at December 29th, 2009 around 9:01 pm
32

Alec,

Thank you a lot this has really helped me at the first attempt.

Wish you a good new year.

Ivan

Ivan at January 4th, 2010 around 4:30 am
33

Your explanation of how to get pw back from wordpress saved my life. Thank you for being so clear…and for sharing this info. –kbmhartnett

kbmhartnett at January 7th, 2010 around 1:30 pm
34

Thank you so much for posting this! You saved me from having to delete and reinstall my blog.

Isabella Anjuli, The Cupcake Chef at August 25th, 2010 around 11:59 am
35

Hi there,

In my phpMyadmin, i see that the wp_users table is empty.

What can i do now?

Thank you

Andrew at August 27th, 2010 around 3:44 am
36

Hi Andrew,

You can add a user. You won’t have the password though, so you’ll have to do a password reset from the login window using that user’s username and picking up the password from the email.

Have fun!

alec at August 27th, 2010 around 9:34 am