How to set root password to null

This worked for me on Ubuntu 16.04 with v5.7.15 MySQL:

First, make sure you have mysql-client installed (sudo apt-get install mysql-client).

Open terminal and login:

mysql -uroot -p

(then type your password)

After that:

use mysql;
update user set authentication_string=password(''), plugin='mysql_native_password' where user='root';

(tnx @Stanislav Karakhanov)

And the very last important thing is to reset mysql service:

sudo service mysql restart

You should now be able to login (without passsword) also by using MySQL Workbench.

You can recover MySQL database server password with following five easy steps.

Step # 1: Stop the MySQL server process.

Step # 2: Start the MySQL (mysqld) server/daemon process with the --skip-grant-tables option so that it will not prompt for password.

Step # 3: Connect to mysql server as the root user.

Step # 4: Setup new mysql root account password i.e. reset mysql password.

Step # 5: Exit and restart the MySQL server.

Here are commands you need to type for each step (login as the root user):

Step # 1 : Stop mysql service

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Output:

Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.

Step # 2: Start to MySQL server w/o password:

# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

Output:

[1] 5988
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
mysqld_safe[6025]: started

Step # 3: Connect to mysql server using mysql client:

# mysql -u root

Output:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 4.1.15-Debian_1-log
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
mysql>

Step # 4: Setup new MySQL root user password

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEW-ROOT-PASSWORD") where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

Step # 5: Stop MySQL Server:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Output:

Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld
STOPPING server from pid file /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
mysqld_safe[6186]: ended
[1]+  Done                    mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables

Step # 6: Start MySQL server and test it

# /etc/init.d/mysql start
# mysql      
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO) 
# mysql -u root -p

Source: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/recover-mysql-root-password.html

It's not a good idea to edit mysql database directly.

I prefer the following steps:

mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY ''; 
mysql> flush privileges;

For MySQL 8.0 just:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = '';

This is from MySQL 8.0.13:

use mysql;

update user set authentication_string=null  where user='root';

quit;

It works for me.

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password'

I noticed a few of these solutions above are now deprecated.

To set an empty password simply follow these steps:

mysql -u root -p

use mysql

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = '';

\q (to quit)

now run: mysql -u root

You should be able to start mysql up without a password now.

I am using nodejs and windows 10. A combination of two answers worked for me.

mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY ''; 
mysql> flush privileges;

followed by:

restart;

Hope this helps for others who still have an issue with this.

The syntax is slightly different depending on version. From the docs here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/resetting-permissions.html

MySQL 5.7.6 and later:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '';

MySQL 5.7.5 and earlier:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('');

My variant for MySQL 5.7:

Stop service mysql:

$ sudo service mysql stop

Running in Safe Mode:

$ sudo mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables --skip-networking

(above line is the whole command)

Open a new terminal window:

$ mysql -u root

$ mysql use mysql;

$ mysql update user set authentication_string=password('password') where user='root';

$ mysql update user set plugin="mysql_native_password" where User='root';

$ mysql flush privileges;
$ mysql quit;

Run the mysql service:

$ sudo service mysql start

Wanted to put my own 2cents in here bcuz the above answers did not work for me. On centos 7, mysql community v8, shell is bash.

The correct commands would be as follows:

# start mysql without password checking
systemctl stop mysqld 2>/dev/null
systemctl set-environment MYSQLD_OPTS="--skip-grant-tables" &&
systemctl start mysqld

# set default password to nothing
mysql -u root mysql <<- 'EOF'
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    UNINSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_validate_password';
    ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY '';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
    INSTALL COMPONENT 'file://component_validate_password';
EOF

# restart mysql normally
systemctl restart mysqld

then you can login without password:

mysql -u root

its all because you installed greater then 5.6 version of the mysql

Solutions

1.you can degrade mysql version solution

2 reconfigure authentication to native type or legacy type authentication using
configure option

On ubuntu 19.10, mysql 8, this is what worked for me:

$ sudo mysqld --skip-grant-tables &
$ mysql
> use mysql
> alter user set authentication_string='', plugin='mysql_native_password' where user = 'root';
> quit
$ sudo mysqladmin shutdown
$ sudo systemctl start mysql

If you get errors trying to run mysqld_safe, in particular: /var/run/mysqld for UNIX socket file don't exists, you can try creating the dir and running mysqld_safe again.

$ sudo mkdir /var/run/mysqld
$ sudo chown mysql /var/run/mysqld
$ sudo chgrp mysql /var/run/mysqld

After searching for hours i found it . just Change the password to something contains Upper case numeric and special characters in it.