Documentation

Reset the MySQL/MariaDB Root Password

By default, the MySQL/MariaDB installation that ships with XAMPP has an empty root password. This is a serious security risk, especially if you plan to use XAMPP in production scenarios.

To change the MySQL/MariaDB root password, follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that the MySQL/MariaDB server is running.

  2. Open a new terminal.

  3. Use the mysqladmin command-line utility to alter the MySQL/MariaDB password, using the following syntax:

    mysqladmin --user=root password "newpassword"

    The mysqladmin command-line utility is located within the bin/ subdirectory of the XAMPP installation directory, typically /Applications/XAMPP.

    For example, to change the MySQL/MariaDB root password from its default empty value to the password gue55me, you would execute:

    /Applications/XAMPP/bin/mysqladmin --user=root password "gue55me"
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    Or, if a password has already been previously set and you’d like to change it to a new one, you can use the following syntax:

    mysqladmin --user=root --password=oldpassword password "newpassword"

    For example, to change the root password from 12345 to gue55me, you would execute:

    /Applications/XAMPP/bin/mysqladmin --user=root --password=12345 password "gue55me"

  4. Test that your password change has been accepted, by attempting to connect to the MySQL/MariaDB server using the mysql command-line client in the same directory. For example, you could use the command below to connect to the server and return the results of a calculation:

    /Applications/XAMPP/bin/mysql --user=root --password=gue55me -e "SELECT 1+1"
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