Locked out as Admin

[Tilla]

Is there an easy way to reset my Admin password? Recently the forum prompted me to change the password, which I did. Now I cannot login.

I have used the Forget Password feature to try and recover my password, but the plot thickens. When I purchased this forum, I got it to replace another popular ASP forum. I used a script to import the users and posts from the previous forum. It so happens that the previous admin from the old forum came in as imported_Admin. Because I tried to maintain the same email address with the admin account, when I try to reset my password, it sends the userID and PW as imported_Admin and [email protected] etc.
The imported_admin does not have admin privileges so I cannot even delete a post when I am logged into it.

What is the easiest way I can retrieve my admin password?

Lastly, is there a way to prevent the forum from forcing people to change their passwords ever so often? There must be, as I havenot used this forum for some time, but when I return, my same password works fine.

Thank you
Tilla

[ENF]

You can set the forum to never force password changes or you can set a certain number of days.

For your issue about your admin password: If you are truly locked out, are you the only admin? (Guess you would have thought about that first...)

Anyway, if you have access to the database, you can go in and change the email address on your account to enable the password reset feature. That may be the easiest route... there is a route to replace your user password, but I think just replacing your email address would be easier.

BUT... you have to have access to the database via an SQL tool such as phpMyadmin or a MySQL Query Browser.

[Zachery]

Is there an easy way to reset my Admin password? Recently the forum prompted me to change the password, which I did. Now I cannot login.

I have used the Forget Password feature to try and recover my password, but the plot thickens. When I purchased this forum, I got it to replace another popular ASP forum. I used a script to import the users and posts from the previous forum. It so happens that the previous admin from the old forum came in as imported_Admin. Because I tried to maintain the same email address with the admin account, when I try to reset my password, it sends the userID and PW as imported_Admin and [email protected] etc.
The imported_admin does not have admin privileges so I cannot even delete a post when I am logged into it.

What is the easiest way I can retrieve my admin password?

Lastly, is there a way to prevent the forum from forcing people to change their passwords ever so often? There must be, as I havenot used this forum for some time, but when I return, my same password works fine.

Thank you
Tilla

UPDATE user
set password = MD5(concat(MD5('<NEWPASSWORD>'), user.salt))
WHERE userid = <USERID>

Make sure you update <NEWPASSWORD> and <USERID>

[Tilla]

Thanks for your suggestion ENF. Unfortunately, I had only one Admin set up.

[Tilla]

UPDATE user
set password = MD5(concat(MD5('<NEWPASSWORD>'), user.salt))
WHERE userid = <USERID>

Make sure you update <NEWPASSWORD> and <USERID>

Zachery, do you mind explaining a bit more what am I to do with the code you have posted? I am not sure what to do or what are you suggesting.

Please excuse my ignorance.

Thanks,
Tilla

[Zachery]

Sorry, this is a SQL query, you may need to update your table prefixes for your site.


You'd run this in phpmyadmin or the mysql command line:

UPDATE [COLOR="red"]PREFIX[/COLOR]user
set password = MD5(concat(MD5('[COLOR="red"]<NEWPASSWORD>[/COLOR]'), [COLOR="red"]PREFIX[/COLOR]user.salt))
WHERE userid = [COLOR="red"]<USERID>[/COLOR]

Change anything in red replace as nessary.

[ENF]

What Zachery is suggesting was my 2nd route -- depending on if you knew how to access your DB via one of the tools previously discussed.

If you don't understand Zachery's information, or don't have access to the tools needed -- then you'll need to find someone who does.

[Zachery]

I posted it to make sure they could, you cant just update the password field in the user table, it won't work well

[Tilla]

I posted it to make sure they could, you cant just update the password field in the user table, it won't work well

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I will take some time over the weekend an try figure this one out.
I will make sure to provide feedback if I am successful.

I do not have PHPMyAdmin on the site, but I have downloaded it and intend to install it later. Iguess the first thing i will do when I get that up and running is to make a backup of the database. I would not want to start out making matters worse and not have anything to fallback on.

Thanks again.
Tilla

[Tilla]

I finally got my problem solved without having to access the database directly. For some reason, the reset password feature began working again. I was therefore able to reset the password and finally gain entry to the admin of the forum. I then went in and deleted the imported_Admin account which shared the same email address as Admin. I think I explained in my original post how these two accounts were allowed to happen in the first place and I think were conflicting.

My next question, how do I prevent the forum from from requiring users to change their password ever so often? Most users will have a password they want to use and keep unless they want to change. I would like to turn off the password change requirement, but cannot find where to do this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Tilla

[Super Jinni]

For disabling the password changing requiring feature:
In the admincp go to > Usergroups > Usergroup Manager > Choose the group you want to disable/enable this feature then press Go > Then look for Password Expiry > in the form field in the right side of Password Expiry put 0 to disable (no expiry), and put any amount of days you want to enable.

[Tilla]

Thank you, I found it and fixed it.

Regards,
Tilla