In this MariaDB tutorial, we will learn about the MariaDB reset root password and cover the following topics.
- MariaDB reset root password windows
- MariaDB reset root password ubuntu
- MariaDB reset root password mac
- MariaDB reset root password docker
- MariaDB reset root password Linux
- MariaDB reset root password xampp
- MariaDB reset root password Debian 9
- MariaDB 10.3 reset root password
MariaDB Reset Root Password Windows
In this section, we will learn how to reset the password of MariaDB. Sometimes, we forget the password, so will recover the password of MariaDB that running on a Windows machine. To recover the password we must have access to that MariaDB server.
Follow the below steps to reset the password.
Firstly, check the version of the MariaDB server by opening the command line on windows and typing the below command in that command line.
mysql --version

If unable to run this command in the command line, then go to the C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.6
folder of MariaDB where it is installed on your windows machine and from the folder we can see it is MariaDB 10.6 version.
Secondly, stop the database server by opening the command line as the administrator, typing the below code.
net stop MairaDB
If the MariaDB version is 10.4 or a later version then run the above code, for the MariaDB version before 10.4 run the below code to stop the database server.
net stop MySQL
Here we are using the MariaDB 10.6 version so we will run the command net stop MariaDB
.

Thirdly, restart the MariaDB server without loading the grant tables like user and db, these grant tables contain information about the user privileges that who can log in and has access to which database.
When the MariaDB server restarts without user privileges information or grant tables, then any user can log in to MariaDB using the command line without a password as the root user. Additionally, we will also skip the network while restarting MariaDB so that other users can’t connect to this server.
Go to the bin
folder of MariaDB (C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.6\bin)
where it is installed. open the command line and type the below code to restart the MariaDB server without grant tables.
cd C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.6\bin
./mysqld --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking --shared-memory

Fourthly, let’s reset the password of MariaDB, open the command line, and type the below code to log in as a root user without a password.
mysql -u root
After running the above code in the command line, we have logged into MariaDB as a root user that we can see in the below output.

Before resetting the password, load the grant tables that contain information about user privileges. Run the below code to reload the grant tables in MariaDB prompt.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Reset the password using the below code.
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_user_password';
If the MariaDB version is 10.1.20 or later then use the above code, otherwise use the below code for MariaDB version 10.1.20.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_user_password');
Again reload the grant tables using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After running the above code, it shows the output as Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.011 sec)
.
Exit from the MariaDB prompt or session.
exit

We have reset the password of MariaDB manually. Now restart the MariaDB server normally by opening the command line as administrator and typing the below code in that command line.
net start MariaDB

Login with a new password in MariaDB by typing the below command in the command line.
mysql -u root -p
If the above command asks for a password then enter the new password that we reset for the root user in the above steps.

From the output, we can see that we have successfully reset the password of MariaDB.
Also, check: MariaDB Backup Database
MariaDB Reset Root Password Ubuntu
To reset the password of MariaDB on Ubuntu some of the commands are the same for MariaDB that we have used in the above sub-section. Follow the below steps to reset the password of MariaDB on Ubuntu.
First, check the version of MariaDB using by opening the terminal and typing the below code in that terminal.
mysql --version

Stop the MariaDB server, so we can reset the password of MariaDB manually. Use the below code to stop the database server.
sudo systemctl stop mariadb
After stopping the MariaDB server, run the below code to restart the MariaDB server without grant tables. When the MariaDB server restarts without user privileges information or grant tables, then any user can log in to MariaDB using the command line without a password as the root user.
Additionally, we will also skip the network while restarting MariaDB so that other users can’t connect to this server.
sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking &

Login into the MariaDB prompt without entering the password by typing the below code in the same terminal.
mysql -u root
Now we can reset the password of MariaDB because we logged in as a root user so we have full access to the database.
Before resetting the password, reload the grant table using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Reset the password using the below code.
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_user_password';
If the MariaDB version is 10.1.20 or later then use the above code, otherwise use the below code for MariaDB version 10.1.20.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_user_password');
Again reload the grant tables using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After running the above code, it shows the output as Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.001 sec)
.
Exit from the MariaDB prompt or session.
exit

We have reset the password of the MariaDB server manually, After this, restart the MariaDB server in normal mode by restarting the Ubuntu machine. Run the below code to check the status of the MariaDB server.
systemctl status mariadb
Then login into the MariaDB server with a new password.
mysql -u root -p

From the output, we can see that we have successfully login into MariaDB with a new password.
Read: MariaDB Enable Remote Access
MariaDB Reset Root Password Mac
To reset the root password in Mac OS, follow the steps provided in the above subsection “MariaDB reset root password Ubuntu”.
MariaDB Reset Root Password Docker
To reset the root password of MariaDB follow the below steps.
Open the docker-compose file for MariaDB and add the line command: --skip-grant-tables
at the end of the file as given in the below output.
# Use root/example as user/password credentials
version: '3.1'
services:
db:
image: mariadb
restart: always
environment:
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: example
ports:
- 8080:8080
command: --skip-grant-tables

After adding the line, restart the container MariaDB using the below code in the directory where the above compose file exists.
docker-compose down -- to stop the running container
Then start the container.
docker-compose up -- to start the container with new setting
Access the bash shell of the MariaDB container by clicking on the button CLI
in docker application.
Login into MariaDB as root user using the below code.
mysql -u root
Before resetting the password, reload the grant table using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Reset the password using the below code.
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_user_password';
If the MariaDB version is 10.1.20 or later then use the above code, otherwise use the below code for MariaDB version 10.1.20.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_user_password');
Again reload the grant tables using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After running the above code, it shows the output as Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.011 sec)
.
Exit from the MariaDB prompt or session.
exit

After performing the above steps, exit the bash shell of the MariaDB container, stop the MariaDB container and open the docker-compose file, remove the line command: --skip-grant-tables
from the file and save the file. Then restart the container again with changes setting using the below code.
sudo nano docker-compose file -- opening the compose file
Then start the container.
docker-compose up -- to start the container with new setting
Again access the bash shell of the MariaDB container using the below code or use the docker desktop application to open the base shell of that container.
docker exec -it mariadbtips-db-1 bash
Login into MariaDB as root user with a new password using the below code.
mysql -u root -p

Read: MariaDB Check If Rows Exists
MariaDB Reset Root Password Linux
To reset the root password of MariaDB in Linux, follow the steps of the tutorial “MariaDB reset root password Ubuntu” because all Linux-based operating systems follow the same steps to reset the password of MariaDB.
MariaDB Reset Root Password xampp
The XAMPP is a cross-platform web server developed by Apache. So here we will reset the password of MariaDB using XAMPP shell and for that follow the below steps.
Open the XAMPP control panel on your system and click on the button Conifg
of MySQL, then option appears as my.ini
and click on my.ini
option to open the file as shown in the below picture.

After opening the file, add the given line below the line [mysqld]
of file my.ini
and save the file.
skip-grant-tables

Then come back to the XAMPP control panel, stop and start the MySQL server to take effect on changes that we made. After this, we will be able to log into the database without a password as the root user.
Click on the button Shell
to open the shell, check the version, and login into the database without a password.

Before resetting the password, reload the grant table using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Reset the password using the below code.
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_user_password';
If the MariaDB version is 10.1.20 or later then use the above code, otherwise use the below code for MariaDB version 10.1.20.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_user_password');
Again reload the grant tables using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After running the above code, it shows the output as Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.000 sec)
.
Exit from the MariaDB prompt or session.
exit

Then again open the file my.ini
and remove the line skip-grant-tables
and restart the MySQL server.
Login with a new password that we set for the root user in the above steps.
mysql -u root -p

Now we have successfully logged into the database with a reset password.
Read: MariaDB Truncate Table + Examples
MariaDB reset root password Debian 9
The same steps are used to reset the password of MariaDB in Debian 9 as we have used the above sub-section “MariaDB reset root password Ubuntu”.
Read: MariaDB Rename View
MariaDB 10.3 Reset Root Password
So in this section, we will reset the root password of MariaDB 10.3
and follow the below steps.
Firstly, check the version of the MariaDB server by opening the command line on windows and typing the below command in that command line.
mysql --version

If unable to run this command in the command line, then go to the C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.3
folder of MariaDB where it is installed on your windows machine and from the folder we can see it is MariaDB 10.3 version.
Secondly, stop the database server by opening the command line as the administrator, typing the below code.
net stop MairaDB
If the MariaDB version is 10.4 or a later version then run the above code, for the MariaDB version before 10.4 run the below code to stop the database server.
net stop MySQL
Here we are using the MariaDB 10.6 version so we will run the command net stop MariaDB
.

Thirdly, restart the MariaDB server without loading the grant tables like user and db, these grant tables contain information about the user privileges that who can log in and has access to which database.
When the MariaDB server restarts without user privileges information or grant tables, then any user can log in to MariaDB using the command line without a password as the root user. Additionally, we will also skip the network while restarting MariaDB so that other users can’t connect to this server.
Go to the bin
folder of MariaDB (C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.6\bin)
where it is installed. open the command line and type the below code to restart the MariaDB server without grant tables.
cd C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.6\bin
./mysqld --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking --shared-memory

Fourthly, let’s reset the password of MariaDB, open the command line, and type the below code to log in as a root user without a password.
mysql -u root
After running the above code in the command line, we have logged into MariaDB as a root user that we can see in the below output.

Before resetting the password, load the grant tables that contain information about user privileges. Run the below code to reload the grant tables in MariaDB prompt.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Reset the password using the below code.
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'new_user_password';
If the MariaDB version is 10.1.20 or later then use the above code, otherwise use the below code for MariaDB version 10.1.20.
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('new_user_password');
Again reload the grant tables using the below code.
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
After running the above code, it shows the output as Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.011 sec)
.
Exit from the MariaDB prompt or session.
exit

We have reset the password of MariaDB manually. Now restart the MariaDB server normally by opening the command line as administrator and typing the below code in that command line.
net start MariaDB

Login with a new password in MariaDB by typing the below command in the command line.
mysql -u root -p
If the above command asks for a password then enter the new password that we reset for the root user in the above steps.

From the output, we can see that we have successfully reset the password of MariaDB.
You may also like to read the following MariaDB tutorials.
- MariaDB Left Join
- MariaDB Rename Column
- MariaDB Truncate Table
- MariaDB Union Operator
- MariaDB Case Statement
- MariaDB Variables Tutorial
- MariaDB Temporary Table
So, in this tutorial, we have learned about the “MariaDB reset root password“, learned how to reset the MariaDB on different systems, and covered the following topics.
- MariaDB reset root password windows
- MariaDB reset root password ubuntu
- MariaDB reset root password mac
- MariaDB reset root password docker
- MariaDB reset root password Linux
- MariaDB reset root password xampp
- MariaDB reset root password Debian 9
- MariaDB 10.3 reset root password
I am Bijay having more than 15 years of experience in the Software Industry. During this time, I have worked on MariaDB and used it in a lot of projects. Most of our readers are from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
Want to learn MariaDB? Check out all the articles and tutorials that I wrote on MariaDB. Also, I am a Microsoft MVP.