From time to time it happens that mysql password for root user gets lost and you are required to reset mysql password. here’s how it’s done:

how to reset mysql password

how to reset mysql password

System Requirements:

A Linux or Windows machine running mysql server.

The following process will teach you how to reset mysql password for root user (or any other user) on both Windows and Linux.

Alternatively, on any platform, you can set the new password using the mysql client (but this approach is less secure).

Let’s begin:

  1. Stop mysqld and restart it with the --skip-grant-tables option. This enables anyone to connect without a password and with all privileges. Because this is insecure, you might want to use --skip-grant-tables in conjunction with --skip-networking to prevent remote clients from connecting.
  2. Connect to the mysqld server with this command: 
    shell> mysql
  3. Issue the following statements in the mysql client. Replace the password with the password that you want to use. 
    mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('MyNewPass')
    ->                   WHERE User='root';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

    The FLUSH statement tells the server to reload the grant tables into memory so that it notices the password change.

You should now be able to connect to the MySQL server as root using the new password. Stop the server, then restart it normally (without the --skip-grant-tables and --skip-networking options).