It happens all too often- that moment when the password your client gave you (which they say is THE ONE) doesn’t work no matter how many times you try. You verified there were no extra white-spaces after Copy/Paste and tried to tediously typing it in with no luck. It’s time to take action and stop bugging the client. The good part is, it’s super easy if you have MySQL access or PHPMyAdmin access!
Option1: Change Your WordPress Password with PHPMyAdmin
First, you’ll need to log into your PHPMyAdmin dashboard. If you have cPanel, login and find the icon or search for it and proceed to the next steps.
Step 1: Click on Your Database Then The Users Table
In PHPMyAdmin, find your main database, then find your users table. Usually, it starts with wp_ but it could be different depending on the way your database was named.
Step 2: Change The Password by Selecting The User and Changing The Function to MD5
Click on the user you would like to change and change the function field to “MD5”. Now, just replace the password with whatever your new one is. Now, you’re all set!
Option 2: Run a MySQL Command to Change Your WordPress Password
This way is also super easy. You can run it from PHPMyAdmin as well.
Step 1: Follow The First Step in The Above Tutorial
Step 2: Go to SQL or MySQL section in your PHPMyAdmin
Enter this query after clicking on the SQL section:
UPDATE `wp_users` SET `user_pass`= MD5('yourpassword') WHERE `user_login`='yourusername';
Summary
As you found out, it’s a lot less overwhelming than you thought it was to change your WordPress admin password. I usually just stick with the first method since it’s easier for me to remember, but I would probably just bookmark this page that way you have quick access to it when you need it.