FREE, JOOMLA TEMPLATES, & WORDPRESS THEMES
How to Reset your Joomla Admin Password
- Published on Monday, 09 May 2011
- Category: Joomla
One of the nasty things most if not everyone will experience is the loss of their Joomla administration login. Normally this is the password and if you noticed, there is no "Password Remind" feature built in for administrators, so what do you do when the unfortunate happens? The good news is that you can reset your password (even your username if you want) by going into the database because this is the only way, but it's not that difficult.
Step 1 - Backup Your Database
The first thing you will want to do is backup your database because before you do anything, ALWAYS BACKUP your database! If you have never done this before, I will go through the steps here:
Log into your phpmyadmin (either through your local server like XAMPP or your hosting control panel). Find the database you are backing up and click on the name; for this tutorial, which is using my XAMPP, see the highlighted option in the screenshot for the demo16 database...click on the name:
The next thing you want to do is to click on the tab that says "Export" which will show a screen like this:
There are several settings to select, which are shown with red arrows, and in most cases, everything else that does not have an arrow does not need to be changed.
- Click Select All
- Make sure the export type is set to SQL
- Put a check in the box next to Save as File
- Choose either "zipped" or "gzipped"
- Click the Go button to save it to your desktop, or wherever you download files to
You are all done! But first, make sure the SQL file downloaded to your computer. Just to be on the safe side, I usually download two copies of the database, one as gzipped file and another as "none"
Step 2 - Create Your NEW Password
First thing you want to do is create your own version of a password, and I recommend using PCTools password generator. Opt in for a 12 character password with symbols so that it makes it stronger and more secure. If for some reason you are not able to use symbols, then use only letters and numbers.
After you have your password, you will need to use an MD5 hash generator online to convert it because Joomla uses this method for encryption. Google the keywords "MD5 Hash Generator" and visit any one that appeals to you. There should be a text field for you to paste or type your own password in and then click their "Generate MD5 Hash" button. You should see a long string of characters which is what you will be copying into your Joomla database password field. For example, if your password is:
bresTa#r@!us
Then your MD5 Hash generated password will now look like this:
161f3df6980c301297877b5968bb7d1
Make sure you save your new MD5 generated password because you will need this in the next step.
Step 3 - Reset Your Password
Now that your database is backed up, now it's time to reset your admin password for Joomla. With your phpmyadmin open, make sure you still have your database open and then click on the "Structure" tab now that you are done with the "Export" tab.
You will see a lot of tables down the page (see the screenshot below) which are all part of your Joomla installation. Look for the table called jos_users and click on the little browse icon to the right (see the red arrow).
You will see the next screen which shows the details of this table and because this installation of Joomla just has the one user, the Administrator (Super User for Joomla 1.6) is the only user showing here.
Click on the Edit icon that looks like a pencil.
NOTE: The blurry areas are just my own information, one for the email and the other is a long string of characters.
The password is the long string of characters and you may not recognize it because whatever your password was or is, it gets encrypted with what is called an MD5 Hash. I won't go into the details of this but if you want to read more about it, you can Google it. However, the best way to describe it is to that it's an encryption that converts your regular password into something that is very strong and very long with lots of numbers and letters...as you can see by the password in your database.
Step 4 - Edit Your Database Password Field
Copy your newly generated MD5 password string and replace the one that is in the password field of your database...I recommend clearing out everything in the password field before pasting your new one inside it. After you've done this, you can now click on the Go button in the database window.
NOTE: Make sure you remember what your new password was (not the MD5 version) so that you do not have to do this again.
Step 5 - Test Your New Password
To see if all went well, you can now try to log into your Joomla site's administrator area. If you got in, I recommend you create one extra backup admin login by creating another Super Admin account, should anything go wrong later. This way if you cannot log in with one, you have a second account you can use.
If you are able to log into your admin, I also recommend backing up your database once again because now it will contain your new login password. After this, you can Exist your phpMyAdmin.
RSS
Thanks AJ, that was really helpful, after many searches, your article is the most helpful, password changed successfully!You're very welcome! I just realized too that I should get a quick tutorial in for restoring a database...which isn't too difficult. With regards to the password issue, I'm amazed how many actually end up having to do this, even I had to a couple of times in the past. But luckly we can get access to our admin again. Anyway, glad to hear you were successful with this and thank you for your kind comments.