Forcefully reset MySQL password [CentOS]

Forcefully reset MySQL password [CentOS]

Sometime you need to reset MySQL password on a server you have root access to. Here’s a step-by-step how-to to accomplish this task on a CentOS 6 server.

Stop the MySQL daemon process
[root@memento ~]# /etc/init.d/mysqld stop

Start the mysqld daemon process with the —skip-grant-tables option.
[root@memento ~]# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

Now you should connect to MySQL without password:
[root@memento ~]# mysql -u root
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
Server version: 5.0.95 Source distribution

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Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
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owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>

Now you can set new password for user root as follows:
mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD('***YOUR NEW PASSWORD HERE***') WHERE User='root';

At this point, you may exit the MySQL prompt (using the ‘quit’ or ‘exit’ command), then you can restart the MySQL daemon in normal mode as follows:

[root@memento ~]# /etc/init.d/mysqld restart

Now you can to connect to MySQL with the new password:
[root@memento ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is ...