How to Reset a Forgotten MariaDB User Password

Did you or someone using MariaDB forget the password to an account? Don’t worry! Resetting a MariaDB user password on Linux is super easy. Here’s a quick guide with the commands and step-by-step instructions to help you out.

Change MariaDB password using command line

• Open a terminal.
• Stop the currently running MariaDB database.

sudo systemctl stop mariadb

• Restart the database process, but this time use the --skip-grant-tables option. This lets you connect to the database without needing a password.

sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking

• Now, open a new terminal.
• Login to MariaDB as root. Don't worry, it won't ask you about the password.

mariadb -u root

• Run the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command and then change the root password with the command below. Change this NEW_PASSWORD_HERE to your new password. Past these commands line by line inside MariaDB Monitor.

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'NEW_PASSWORD_HERE';
exit

• Close your first terminal.
• Stop the current mysqld process properly, and then restart your MariaDB server. Line by line.

sudo pkill mysqld 
sudo systemctl start mariadb

• Congratulations! You’ve successfully changed the password. Now, go ahead and test it out!

mariadb -u root -p

Thanks for reading!