Nowadays, we need to have a strong password for the WordPress dashboard panel. This can cause a small problem: it is very easy to lose this password. But in this case, you can use the restore password option, and this problem will go. But what do you do when you remember the password but still can’t log in to the WordPress dashboard? In this post, I will show you several tips to restore your WordPress Dashboard password.
In this article, you will read about:
Use phpMyAdmin to change the WordPress password
In the post, How to move WordPress site to a new host, we use phpMyAdmin to download whole WordPress databases and then upload them again on the new host. In one of these databases, WordPress keeps a password for the dashboard panel. These databases are called “wp_users”
When you are logged into the phpMyAdmin dashboard, you can change each database element, including the user password. It’s very simple. Select the base “wp_user”, then click edit in the row that you want to change the password, then select MD5 in the password row and type the new password. That’s it. You change the user password.
Let’s stay for a while in the MD5 function. What does it mean? Why do we use this function?
The MD5 function adds a unique hash value that raises your password protection. It’s far from an ideal solution, but still much better than using and storing passwords without it. More about the MD5 function you can find here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5
I remember the password, but still can’t log in
Unfortunately, there are thousands of WordPress plugins, and most of them can cause trouble. Sometimes, a plugin has not been updated for a long period, and sometimes, a critical bug is present in a new plugin version. There are many ways that something could go wrong. Finally, you can’t log in to the WordPress dashboard, and your audience can’t visit your web page.
The same problem can appear when the theme crashes. So what can you do to solve these problems?
As you remember, WordPress stores whole information in databases. But there are also directories on the server where WordPress keeps photos, theme files, and plugin files. Plugins are mostly JavaScript code, and the JavaScript code is stored in files.
When themes or plugins generate problems, then you can turn off them and restore your web page functionality. But how to do that, when you can’t log in to your dashboard?
You need to use an FTP server to bring back your WordPress site to live
When you log in to your FTP account, you will see the main folder. In this folder, you need to enter the folder where WordPress is installed. The name of this folder could be different depending on your hosting provider. Then, in the WordPress installation directory, find the wp-content directories and open them. Here are two directories where WordPress stores themes and plugins.
Now, to turn off plugins or themes, you need to rename directories where information about these plugins or themes is stored. For example, you want to know if some of the installed plugins generated an issue. Open plugin directories and change plugin directories’ names by adding the extension “old” or some other, but just remember not to rename whole directories’ names because it’s a high possibility that you forgot previous directories’ names, and you won’t be able to bring it back easily.
You can turn off plugins one by one, and if one of the plugins generates an issue when you turn it off, you will be able to log in to the dashboard again. The same situation applies to themes. When you remove plugins or themes that cause problems, you will need to turn on the rest of the extension by renaming directories and turning it on back in the WordPress Dashboard.
Good Luck
