Feb 21 2007

Joomla - How to Reset Super Admin Password

Filed under: Content Management Systems » Joomla,

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How to Reset Your Lost Joomla Password in 6 Easy Steps

Before we begin, you must have access to your database. If you don't, pass these instructions on to someone that does. It's also a good idea to backup your database before making changes, just in case something goes awry.

Finding the Password

Log in to your Joomla database (via phpMyAdmin for example)
Click to edit the _users database (will be preceded by your account name, for example: example_users)
Edit the entry for where usertype = "Super Administrator" (should be the first record)

Resetting the Password

In the password field you'll notice a string of characters. Joomla uses a one-way encoding method, which means you won't be able to retrieve your old password. However, you will be able to reset the password to a new one using mySQL's built in MD5 function:

UPDATE example_users SET password=MD5('new password') WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

Voila - you just successfully reset your Joomla password Go to your joomla domain at example.com/administrator and try logging in with the new password. You should be logged in as Super Administrator.

Copying the Password from Another User

An alternate method to reset your password, if you're not comfortable with SQL commands, is to simply copy and paste the password hash from another user (to which you know the password) over to your admin user. You'll then be able to login as the admin user using that password. If you don't have another user, you should be able to register as one, and then copy the password over.

Applying the Email From Another User

Yet another alternate method to retrieving your lost Joomla admin password is to change your admin user's email address to one you are familiar with. Then use the lost password retrieval function (the "forgot password" link in the login section) to have your Joomla password emailed to you.

Troubleshooting

If for some reason the above method does not work try encoding a password that contains only alphanumeric (a-z, 0-9) characters. This method may not work if your password contains special characters (@!#$).

How to reset Joomla 1.5, 1.0 and earlier passwords

In each of these examples you'll want to follow the above instructions, but then modify your SQL query to the following, which will reset your password to the one you specify.

UPDATE `jos_users` SET `password` = MD5( 'new password' ) WHERE `jos_users`.`username` = "admin";

If this doesn't work, try changing jos_users to mos_users.

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password lost

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2007-03-15 00:23.

I have lost my super adminsitrator password in joomla. no i cant looge to my super administrator
so ineed to get my super adminsitrator password. IS THERE ANYWAY I CAN GET MY PASSWORD BACK

Lost password reset

Submitted by alex on Thu, 2007-03-15 06:45.

Unfortunately because the system stores the password in a one-way hash there is no way that I know of to get it back. This article does describe, however, how to reset the password (so you can regain access as Super Admin). Please let me know if you need help with or more detail on a particular step.

can`t reset my admin pass

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-09-23 04:36.

I can not reset the admin password by following the steps. maybe i am doing something wrong? can you help please?

Thanks sooo much

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2007-05-12 06:47.

It works !!!!!

Thnks a million!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2007-06-06 09:46.

Thank you for the useful info. I regained my access to the admin section now!!!

May I add that once you get to see your password in the _users , you should again use MD5er.com to decode it, because it is encoded there.

Cheers,
Nik
www.hotparishilton.net

A different approach ...

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2007-08-31 08:09.

By temporarily removing the authentication in PHP, you can let anyone login. So, in Joomla 1.5 RC, you can go to plugins/authentication/joomla.php and modify the line:
if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) {
so that it reads:
if ( true /* $crypt == $testcrypt */ ) {

Now everyone can login with any password. Change your password to something that you can remember. Do not forget to put the original authentication code back in.

Jack
www.jackbriner.com

Great

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2008-02-15 08:04.

Many thanks Jack,

Saved me lot of trouble!

Regards,
Marcel

Thank you, JACK!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2008-08-21 02:52.

Thank you, JACK!

Also with Joomla 1.0.15?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-09-29 01:26.

Hi Jack,

I have joomla 1.0.15 installed, and am unable to reset the password (MD5 from phpMyAdmin...).

I wanted to ask you if you know of a "different approach" which would also apply to my version of Joomla, as opposed to 1.5?

Thanks

Michael

Joomla 1.0.15 password recovery

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-10-27 07:45.

I found a solution for 1.0.15

search in administrator/index.php and find the line (approx. 105)

if (strcmp( $hash, $cryptpass ) || !$acl->acl_check( 'administration', 'login', 'users', $my->usertype ) )

and change it to:

if ( false /* strcmp( $hash, $cryptpass ) || !$acl->acl_check( 'administration', 'login', 'users', $my->usertype )*/ )

now you can login and generate a new user or set your password in the backend.

all other versions of creating new passwd with or without salt didn't work in Joomla 1.0.15

Thank YOU Very much!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-02-06 11:32.

This was an invaluable piece of information and worked like a charm. Thanks for this!!!

Joomla Website

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-05-12 16:45.

Thank you, the first approach didn't work for me.

If you want check out our joomla website - we're currently working on updating the site and since my developer is as slow as a snail I'm trying to learn how to develop my own site.

Thanks

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-05-24 09:05.

Thank you Jack. That is a real help, you saved me a lot of stress!

Thank you!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-08-16 03:06.

You rule, buddy.

What a guy!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-09-09 15:33.

That worked a treat, much appreciated mate….

Saved me hours/days/weeks…..

Cheers

Great solution!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-09-28 22:08.

I was tearing my hair out! Was following the Joomla tutorial and couldn't get past the phpMyAdmin or MySQL Administrator passwords so I was well and truly stuffed here. Had all the files on Localhost because the site is not live yet so was able to easily find and edit the correct line. You saved my bacon!!

A different approach.......

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-10-14 05:11.

OMG OMG OMG

after hours of searching and trying nothing worked

till I read Jacks one woot thanks heaps

HUG HUG HUG

............

a different approach

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-03-05 09:58.

Jack, YOU ARE THE MAAAAAANNNN!!! (maybe God?)... worked like a charm!..what a guy. thanks a lot for saving my bacon. bims

Great!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2007-10-09 22:43.

Helped me a lot.

Thanks.

ClickMedia.TV

Thanks!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2007-10-23 20:55.

Worked perfectly - I'll have to remember this method for next time...

i changed the password and my site is down

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2007-10-25 13:15.

HI!
I folowed these steps and now my site is completely down. I cant login or do anything. help!

Restore database

Submitted by alex on Thu, 2007-10-25 16:55.

You may have inadvertently edited the wrong fields in the database. That, or your host is having issues unrelated to your changes. Does the site not load at all? Or you simply can't log in? Either way I recommend restoring a backup of your DB.

lost username to Joomla

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2007-10-26 09:33.

the site MD5er.com is inactive. i lost my username, not the password. the username is no longer admin. how do i proceed? why is it so challenging to get through this process. any other system has a simple "forgot username/password" button at the login stage...

MD5 Encryption

Submitted by alex on Fri, 2007-10-26 10:01.

The solution: use Drupal instead

We've updated the article with a mySQL UPDATE statement you can use to reset your password using mySQL's built-in MD5 function.

Lost Password

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2007-11-21 17:24.

Thank you - worked a treat

Simple UPDATE ... SET

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2007-12-01 07:28.

Simple UPDATE ... SET password=MD5('yourpassword') doesn't work ?

MySQL has MD5 built in function.

Thank you so much !

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2008-01-03 04:55.

Hello,
Just thought I'd take the time to thank you profusely !
You've just saved me hours of pulling my hair out...

This does suck a bit security-wise though, no ?

Thanks again,
Sincerely,
Marie (Avignon, France)

If you have access to your

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-01-08 19:19.

If you have access to your server, then it should be in configuration.php file.

Could be done much easier

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2008-01-19 05:18.

Hi guy,
nice, but too complicated. MySQL and hence also phpmyadmin already offer the MD5 function. So you don't need a seperate website to create the MD5 hash.

Bests,
Daniel

Thanks Daniel

Submitted by cwd on Sat, 2008-01-19 12:32.

You're right - I've simply been to lazy to update the article until now. Thanks for the push!

Thank you

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-03-24 12:27.

Thank you!

still wont login

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2008-02-24 13:39.

Help! i've tried to change the password with MD5 encoding, but it still wont work.

the login page doesn't give any error message if i enter the right password, but it also wont login to the administrator page. it only take me back to the login page.

but if i entered the wrong password, it said "Username and password do not match"

anyone can help..?

i previously installed the same joomla 1.5RC but with different localhost/...... name and different db.

the old joomla cannot login, but the new joomla can...

Oh and the if ( true /* $crypt == $testcrypt */ ) wont work also

thx4 any help =)

same problem

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2008-04-03 01:00.

mine does the same thing. It gives you a need to login and not a bad username or password in the address bar.

index.php?mosmsg=You%20need%20to%20login

Any help?

cannot login backend and no errors

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2008-04-25 06:10.

this is most likely because you session directory is not writable. you need to check with your host to make this directory 755

if you have root access you can putty into server and change permissions your self

which one is the session

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-01-27 04:36.

which one is the session directory?

Password

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-03-18 15:36.

This is great! Thanks a ton you just saved me a complete re-install. (blech!)

Unable to login from the front end

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2008-04-11 21:59.

Hi there, I did a site "clone" installed joomla in a test server, when everything was ready ...moved it to prod..a sister domain on the same server, everything is working fine, but cannot login to the "members" area...

I have no prob. on the admin side.....any ideas...

Thanks Community

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2008-05-04 05:14.

That was great to reset the password.

It's working, perfect.

Thanks
M. Javed Rahmani

still not working

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-06-24 23:42.

I have tried all of this to no avail. I see my user name and MD5 password in phpMySQL. I've changed it, saved it, done everything. I go to login on my admin site and STILL get that my user name and password do not match! Any other trouble shooting tips??

Joomla Password Reset Not Working

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2008-08-10 23:34.

I get the message "Invalid session." Any help?

Clear cache and sessions

Submitted by cwd on Wed, 2008-08-13 09:23.

It sounds like you might need to clear your cache and your sessions tables. You can try doing it via your browser, if that doesn't work you might need to truncate the database tables.

IT WORKS

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2008-08-13 16:35.

Thanks for the UPDATE string, it works a teat.

James.

Thanks my friend

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-08-19 10:20.

Thank you so much. Worked like a charm.

Database error: can't access Joomla site

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2008-08-27 17:51.

Please, for god's sake help me.

I don't really know what really happened. I was using myPhpAdmin. I went in the jos_users Database. Clicked SQL. And ran the following query, exactly like that:

UPDATE example_users SET password=MD5('admin') WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

Now my site just busted down completely !

When I try to access it, it says: Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL

Please give me a light !

Restore Joomla backup

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2008-09-02 11:16.

Hi there,

First I would simply recommend loading a backup of your Joomla database. Also, I'm assuming you updated "example_users" to reflect your user name? If not, you may want to rerun the SQL statement with your user name inserted.

The easiest thing to do!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-09-08 14:32.

You can use phpMyAdmin to view & edit the mos_users table?

insert
21232f297a57a5a743894a0e4a801fc3
in the password field of the admin user.

it's the md5 result of the standard password "admin".

This is really great

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-11-24 03:12.

This is really great. Thank you so much.

How did this happen!?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-09-30 16:46.

I am freaked out that my password did not work in the first place. yes, I know, you think I mistyped or forgot, but NO, I was typing in the correct password. Well, using the SQL UPDATE statement worked like a charm for me, still freaked out.

Lost PW change very easy

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-10-21 11:54.

I just followed the instructions for update command in phpmyadmin and PW change was a snap - very easy. Thank you.

Thanks
Joomla rocks

Script to reset your Joomla/Mambo password

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-11-10 01:35.

Hello guys, in case you don't wanna have trouble accessing phpMyAdmin, there's a script which allows you to reset any Admin password EASILY. This works for Joomla 1.x and 1.5.

THANKS THANKS and THANKS!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-11-10 18:19.

THANKS THANKS and THANKS! From Romania

Joomla - got password back

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-11-24 20:51.

Sweet! I just got my Joomla password back using the password recovery method you described. I suppose there's different ways of doing it, but the first approach you described did the trick. Thank you!

Reset Super Admin Password

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2008-11-28 01:42.

Many Thanks!!! You just saved me a whole load of bother!
Martin

Does Joomla support secure password login?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2008-12-06 13:24.

Thanks for the tip. Now that I have my Joomla admin password back, is there any way to engage SSL when logging into Joomla? In other words, does Joomla support a secure login protocol? I ask because I'm planning on transferring some sensitive information from my old website to my new Joomla based site and my first priority is to ensure that the information stays secure and away from prying eyes.

Thanks,
Jenny

Joomla Password Retrieval

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2008-12-10 10:01.

Thanks a lot!!! It worked like a charm.

I do not know how to reset my password

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-12-16 12:28.

I have downloaded the Hash Calc.and mysql. What is the stored connection, and default schema? Where do I find that info?

Janith

Use mySQL (via phpMyAdmin)

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2008-12-16 13:20.

Hi Janith,

Try using mySQL's built in MD5 function as described above:

UPDATE example_users SET password=MD5('yourpassword') WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

instructions easy to follow

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2008-12-26 23:45.

It works for me. Thanks.

How to reset Joomla 1.0 super admin account

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-01-26 03:44.

I am using Joomla 1.0, and I lost my password. How do I reset it?

Jun

Resetting Joomla 1.0 password

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2009-01-27 11:15.

We updated the article to include instructions for resetting passwords in earlier versions of Joomla. Please see the updated article above for details.

U save me

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-02-11 16:41.

I don't know how to thank you...your technique save my website from some [expletive]. Thanks very much!

Awesome!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-02-26 14:49.

Thanks, it worked! You might want to be a bit clearer with the instructions. Initially I wondered if I was supposed to copy the text string into the "password" field for administrator because I (and probably many others) have no idea what an "MD5 function" is.

I entered the text string in the field under the "SQL" tab (using cPanel) and it worked!

Thank you.

Doesn't work in 1.5.10

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-04-22 16:55.

I tried everything above. I changed the joomla.php file, no help. I ran the sql, no soap: UPDATE `#__users` SET `password` =MD5("getsmart") WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

I think Joomla sucks.

Try Drupal

Submitted by cwd on Thu, 2009-04-23 09:22.

Sorry you're having trouble with this. Why not give Drupal (drupal.org) a go? That is our CMS of choice

Worked great

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-04-22 20:45.

Thanks very much for posting this. Saved me quite a bit of trouble!

Back in Joomla

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-05-04 22:36.

Awesome - thank you. Back inside my Joomla website now. I'll be sure to backup the password for next time! Thanks again for bailing me out

Lost username and pw

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-06-19 12:52.

Hi there. I have lost my administration username and password for my domain. How do I go about resetting it and entering into my website domain.

Regards
Omar Abdulla from Footprints Filmworks

Can't login

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-06-21 13:12.

Hi there. I am having trouble with my footprints filmworks administrator and the steps instructed seem not to be working for me. Any other ideas, please assist.

Md for footprints filmworks
Omar Abdulla

Email lost password

Submitted by alex on Tue, 2009-06-23 06:31.

Hi Omar,

Did you try the "forgot password" link - to have your email password, or a password reset link - emailed to you? If the email address stored with the user is still active, you should be able to restore your password using this less intrusive method.

Thank you so much!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-07-28 21:14.

Thanks for posting this quick little tutorial. I was about to freak out when I realized I couldn't change my unknown password. This saved me a huge headache.

thanx

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-08-03 07:58.

thank you

Lost joomla admin pw, none of these answers work

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-08-13 13:42.

OK, thanks but after careful reading and changing the password for the super admin and even adding a new super, none of the MySQL entered passwords work.

I have full MySQL access and ftp access...how do I go in and do serious surgery?

There was a method in 1.5RC to make it possible to enter any password and get in. I am in 1.5.12, having been up to 14 and rolled back to 12 where it happened.

Alternatively, if something is screwing up the passwords entered when I add a new one, can I activate the show+send password box in the modules without having access to the admin back end. In theory yes, but where???

Thanks

Doesn't work

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-09-12 02:32.

According to MySQL this is wrong.... this is useless information.

Specific problem?

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2009-09-15 08:54.

Would you care to go into detail? Works for us and appears to work for most of the people visiting this page...

password update..

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-09-19 08:56.

simple logic, but didn't come to my mind.. u saved my day ..Thanks

This one's the winner for me!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-09-28 17:20.

After beating my head against the screen and mouthing insanities about phpMyAdmin passwords that I couldn't remember I found this (on this very page):

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2007-08-31 08:09.

By temporarily removing the authentication in PHP, you can let anyone login. So, in Joomla 1.5 RC, you can go to plugins/authentication/joomla.php and modify the line:

if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) {

so that it reads:

if ( true /* $crypt == $testcrypt */ ) {

Now everyone can login with any password. Change your password to something that you can remember. Do not forget to put the original authentication code back in.

Jack
www.jackbriner.com

Thanks heaps Jack! You saved my bacon!!

This one's the winner for me!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2010-03-08 09:38.

It is better to replace:

if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) {
if ( $crypt == $testcrypt || $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == "your ip address") {

Only the people with that IP can login to your system.

Doesn't work?? maybe this is a simple solution

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-10-12 07:02.

I had the same problem, it was the Joomla user plugin which was disabled!

Can't login

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-10-24 16:11.

I have been getting the error message "Username and password do not match"

I have tried Jack's solution to modifying the joomla.php file and that has produced no effect. (and I have used this in the past on another site)

I have checked the configuration.php file and confirmed I am using the correct password.

What can I do?

You may have deleted JOOMLA USER PLUGIN

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-12-17 11:20.

You may have deleted JOOMLA USER PLUGIN.

To enable this plugin from backend. Goto your Joomla database. Locate jos_plugins TABLE, then set the PUBLISHED status of USER JOOMLA to 1 (i.e enabled). Then you can relogin or tried other password reset suggestions. That should solve your problem

Olatunde-Hythe
www.Xybertek.com

Thanks! You saved my a__ big time :)

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-10-31 15:33.

Worked like a champ.

2 years on Jack still rocks!!!!!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-12-03 08:24.

I had my passwords written down but could not gain access any way. Tried 6 sites and none of the solutions worked.

Then did what jack said and it worked!!!!!!

Thanks jack!!!! Your one minute posting has helped many people all over the world for years!!!!!!!

Still unable to login

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-01-12 05:37.

Hi Folks,

First of all thanks for your effort in letting us know how we might be able to reset the admin password. However, I can't get it to work. Basically I tried all the tricks and tips you've given but have not had any success so far. Here is what I did:

First I tried the UPDATE `jos_users` SET `password` = MD5( 'new password' ) WHERE `jos_users`.`username` = "admin"; command, as I am running the latest 1.5 version of Joomla. After that I tried this one:

if ( $crypt == $testcrypt) { so that it reads:

if ( true /* $crypt == $testcrypt */ ) {

and Joomla still wants to have a password. And if I say i.e. blablafoo I still get that Authentication Error. Well, I then tried the first recommended Update Version:

UPDATE example_users SET password=MD5('new password') WHERE usertype = "Super Administrator";

And still no success! It is a local installation with the latest XAMPP on a Win/Professional System. So, has anyone some more ideas, am I having a rights issue? I simply got stuck and hope that one of you might kick me off the horse! Thanks a lot for your highly appreciated help!

Regards
Niels

Back in Joomla

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-02-09 22:48.

Fantastic - the MD5 method (using the MD5 has for "admin") above helped me get right back into my Joomla website. Now I just need to remember to change my password back!