Recovering Lost MySQL Password

The following are the steps on how to recover lost passwords in MySQL.

Steps:

1. Kill the MySQL daemon.

(the command on a RedHat-based system)
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld stop

2. Run the command:

# safe_mysqld --skip-grant-tables&
(on Fedora Core 5, the command is "mysqld_safe" instead of "safe_mysqld")

3. Go to the CLI.

#mysql
> use mysql
> update user set password=password('test123') where user='root' and host='localhost';
>\quit

4. Stop the MySQL

#mysqladmin -u root -p shutdown

5. Rerun MySQL

# /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld start

You can now access your database using the new password 'test123' as follows:

#mysql -u root -ptest123