How to change user password in WordPress using MySQL

If the password reset through the usual means doesn’t work for some reason, you can always resort to the data stored in the MySQL database. WordPress stores passwords here in the form of what’s known as hashes. A hash is an encrypted string of characters that serves as an unreadable equivalent of the password. The hash is stored in the database to ensure the original password of a specific user remains concealed. Therefore, the actual password itself is never visible in the database.

However, a relatively simple action you can take is to replace the original hash of an unknown password with a new hash that you do know.

Here’s how you can change a WordPress user’s password using MySQL:

• Log in to the MySQL database management.
• In the left table list, find the one named xxx_users (where xxx is a prefix unique to each installation).
• The users table will display a list of users, each with a password column.
• The password column contains the hash of each user’s password.
• Generate a new hash using an online tool.
• Replace the original hash with the new one. The change typically saves automatically once you press Enter after inserting the new hash.

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