MySQL User Password Change

Last Updated: 28 June, 2023

To change a user's password in MySQL, we can follow these steps:

1. Connect to MySQL: Open a terminal or command prompt and enter the following command, replacing username with our MySQL username and password with our current password:

    mysql -u username -p
   

2. Enter the current password when prompted.

3. Once we're connected to the MySQL server, switch to the MySQL database by running the following command:

    USE mysql;
   

4. To view the current users and their privileges, we can run the following query:

    SELECT user, host FROM user;
   

5. To change the password for a specific user, use the UPDATE statement with the SET PASSWORD clause. The following example shows how to change the password for a user named myuser:

    UPDATE user SET authentication_string = PASSWORD('new_password') 
     WHERE user = 'myuser';
   

   In MySQL 8.0 and above, the authentication_string field is used to store the password.

   Note: If we are using an older version of MySQL (prior to 5.7.6), use SET PASSWORD instead of authentication_string.

6. After updating the password, you need to flush the privileges so that the changes take effect:

    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
   

7. Finally, exit the MySQL prompt by typing:

    EXIT;
   

That's it! The password for the specified user should now be changed to the new password you provided. Remember to use the updated password when connecting to MySQL in the future.