How to reset the PrestaShop administrator password
This article describes two methods for resetting the PrestaShop administrator password. Normally, if you forget your password you can reset it by e-mail. However, if this option is unavailable (for example, if e-mail on your site is not working correctly), you can reset the password in the database manually.
Resetting the password by e-mail
To reset the PrestaShop administrator password by e-mail, follow these steps:
- Go to the PrestaShop login page.
- Click the Lost password? link.
- In the Email address text box, type the address you provided during the installation process.
- Click Send. PrestaShop sends a new administrator password to the e-mail address.
Resetting the administrator password in the database
If you are unable to reset the PrestaShop administrator password by e-mail, you can manually reset it in the database. To do this, follow these steps:
- Log in to cPanel.
If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see
this article.
- In the Files section of the cPanel home screen, click File Manager.
- Navigate to the directory where you installed PrestaShop. For example, this may be the public_html directory, the public_html/presta directory, or another directory.
- In the PrestaShop directory, open the config directory.
- Right-click the parameters.php file, and then click .
- Locate the _COOKIE_KEY_ variable, and then copy the long alphanumeric value that follows.
Make sure you do not include the quotation marks! Only copy the alphanumeric value.
- Note the value of the _DB_NAME_ variable. This is the name of your PrestaShop database.
- Return to the cPanel home screen.
- In the Databases section of the cPanel home screen, click phpMyAdmin.
- In the left-hand pane of phpMyAdmin, click the name of the PrestaShop database that you obtained in step 7. A list of tables in the database appears.
Typically, the PrestaShop database is username_presXXX, where username represents your cPanel username, and XXX is a three-digit number.
- Click the ps_employee table.
You may have to click > to scroll through the list of tables until you locate the ps_employee table.
- Locate the row for the administrator login that you want to reset, and then click Edit.
- Locate the passwd row. In the Value text box is the current encrypted administrator password.
- In the Value text box, delete all of the text.
- In the Value text box, paste the alphanumeric value that you copied in step 6.
- In the Value text box, type the new administrator password after the alphanumeric value.
There should not be a space between the two values. For example, the value should look similar to wrwr218phsdvo5jvsaz7bqwgxiyp0gbxohahimexHereIsTheNewPassword. (Your cookie key and password will be different, of course.)
- In the Function list box for the passwd row, select MD5.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page, and then click Go. phpMyAdmin updates the database with the new password.
- You should now be able to log in to PrestaShop as the administrator by using the new password.