Some of us (like me) have at one time or another forgotten the Admin Login for our WordPress site. Maybe you’ve tried using the Lost your password? function, but for whatever reason that doesn’t work.
So what do you do now? Start all over?
Nope. We’re going to modify our user table on the MySQL database by creating a new MD5 hash.
How in the world do I do that?
Well, first you need to create a new MD5 hash using this handy web site. Enter your new password in the string field of the site. Now save the MD5 hash text the site created for you and save it in a text file. You might also want to save the password in the text file just in case, but don’t forget to delete it once you’re done.
Now, you’re going to use MySQL Workbench to connect to the WordPress database. To learn how to connect to your MySQL database using Workbench please read our Knowledge Base article.
Once connected with MySQL Workbench expand the database. Expand your tables and right click on the users (this table may also be called wp_users depending on which table prefix you used when you installed WordPress).
After right clicking on the users tabled select Edit table data.
Find your admin user. Under the user_pass column next to the admin user and enter the MD5 hash you created. It should look like this:
Now click on the Apply button in MySQL Workbench. Click Apply again on the next window. Now click Finish.
After you completed all those steps you should now be able to log in to your admin section with the new password you created.