Recover MySQL root password

You can recover MySQL database server password with following five easy steps. Step # 1: Stop the MySQL server process. Step # 2: Start the MySQL (mysqld) server/daemon process with the –skip-grant-tables option so that it will not prompt for password Step # 3: Connect to mysql server as the root user Step # 4: Setup new root password Step # 5: Exit and restart MySQL server Here are commands you need to type for each step (login as the root user): Step # 1 : Stop mysql service

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Output: Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld. Step # 2: Start to MySQL server w/o password:

# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

Output: [1] 5988 Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql mysqld_safe[6025]: started Step # 3: Connect to mysql server using mysql client:

# mysql -u root

Output: Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g. Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 4.1.15-Debian_1-log Type ‘help;’ or ‘h’ for help. Type ‘c’ to clear the buffer. mysql> Step # 4: Setup new MySQL root user password

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEW-ROOT-PASSWORD") where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

Step # 5: Stop MySQL Server:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Output: Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld STOPPING server from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid mysqld_safe[6186]: ended [1]+ Done mysqld_safe –skip-grant-tables Step # 6: Start MySQL server and test it

# /etc/init.d/mysql start
# mysql -u root -p