Step by step guide to reset root password in Mysql

Working with MySQL or MariaDB database, you might have faced a situation where you might have forgotten root or another user's password, or being SysAdmin, you might have had to deal with users who have forgotten their password. In this tutorial, we will learn to reset the root password in Mysql or resetting any other user account's password (the same steps can also be used to reset the user's password in MariaDB as well).

( Recommended Read: Installing & configuring MariaDB on CentOS/RHEL )

Step 1- Stop Mysql service

Firstly we need to stop the mysql service. If using Ubuntu, run the following command,

For Centos/RHEL, run the following command,

Step 2- Start MySQL with the custom option

We will now restart the MySQL server in safe mode with option '--skip-grant-tables',

 Note – Running MySQl with '–skip-grant-tables' is not recommended & should only be done to reset the password.

Step 3 – Login to Mysql & resetting the passowrd

We will now access the MySQL server by executing the following command,

Now run the following command to reset the password,

here, we have used “ User='root' ” to change the root user account password but we can also reset the password for another account by replacing 'root' with that user account. Now run the following command to exit out of mysql safely,

Restart MySQL server to & then we will be able to login to the root account with the updated password. For Centos/RHEL, run

For Ubuntu, run the following,

( Recommended Read:  MariaDB administration commands for beginners )

Feel free to submit your queries/questions using the comment box down below.