Resetting MySQL root password from the CLI

Posted on Updated

Seems like I always end up searching for this so I thought I would add it to my site for easy reference.

  1. Stop MySQL
    sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
  2. Start MySQL with the following command
    sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables &
  3. Login to MySQL as root with out a password
    mysql -u root mysql
  4. Replace PASSWORD with the new password of your choice.
    UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('PASSWORD') WHERE User='root'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; exit;