Reset MySQL Password

Posted by alex almazan Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:26:00 GMT

A brief example on resetting the MySQL admin password.

First stop the active MySQL Process

[root@host root]# service mysqld stop

Next, the mysqld process should be restarted without grants loaded

/usr/bin/mysqld --skip-grant-tables --user=root
Go back into MySQL with the client: 
[root@host root]# mysql
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 3.23.41

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

mysql> USE mysql
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Database changed
mysql> UPDATE user
    -> SET password=password("newpassword")
    -> 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 (0.01 sec)

mysql> exit;
[root@host root]#killall mysqld

This should permit a fresh start of MySQL with the new password established. Start the serveice as normal and confirm the changes.