How to Recover MySQL Root Password

Do you want to recover the MySQL root password. its by no means, easy. But its quite simple if you follow the procedure. You will have to follow this step-by-step processes.

1. Step 1: Stop the MySQL server process.
2. Step 2: Start the MySQL (mysqld) server/daemon process with the –skip-grant-tables option so that it will not prompt for a password.
3. Step 3: Connect to the MySQL server as the root user.
4. Step 4: Set a new root password.
5. Step 5: Exit and restart the MySQL server.

Here are the commands you need to type for each step (log in as the root user):

Step 1 : Stop the MySQL service:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Output:

Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.

Step 2: Start the 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 the MySQL server using the 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: Set a 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 the 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

Now Start the MySQL server and test it:

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

[MySQL command sources: howtoforge.com, Million thanks to them]