Reset WordPress Admin Password

Having trouble logging into the administration section of your WordPress website and the password recovery via email option isn't working? Don't worry. In these cases, you can always just change your administrator account password in the website's database by using phpMyAdmin.

You can typically access the database through the company hosting your website. As a IONOS customer, you can access your databases with phpMyAdmin just by logging into your account.

  • Open the database of your WordPress website with phpMyAdmin.
Tip

The database of your WordPress website is defined in the file wp-config.php.

  • Access your webspace via sFTP.
  • View the sFTP Connection Settings.
  • Open the file wp-config.php in the WordPress directory and search for DB_NAME.
  • You should now see the following entry:
define('DB_NAME', 'databasename-my-wordpress-website');
  • Open the User table.
  • Search for your user name, and at the beginning of the line, choose Edit.
phpMyAdmin
phpMyAdmin
  • In the uPassword field, delete the hash value entry and enter your new password as a hash value.
  • To create a hash, you can use the md5 hash generator.
phpMyAdmin-Benutzer editieren
phpMyAdmin-Benutzer editieren
  • Select Save > OK.

You can now log in to your WordPress website with your new password (not the password hash).

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Alternative: Reset password via email

If you do not want to work with hash values, you can update your email address in the Users table by clicking Edit next to the administrator entry or double-clicking the uEmail field. Then, you can reset your password via email in the login window of your WordPress website using the updated email address.

Edit user's e-mail
Edit user's e-mail
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