Reset admin password

There is one default admin user in any Umbraco installation. This is the first user of the system.

While there are multiple blogposts and even a package to reset the password of the admin user. There is an official way to reset credentials from your lost admin password.

Step one: Clear the configuration status in the web.config

The first step is to clear the configuration status in the web.config file. This is done to trigger the installation wizard.

That means that in your web.config file the appsettings should look like this:

<appSettings>
    <add key="Umbraco.Core.ConfigurationStatus" value="" />
</appSettings>

Step two: Update the database

Open the database and go to the umbracoUser database table. Search the user where the column id equals -1.

Clear the field, and change the content of the userpassword field to default.

Step Three: Run the installer

If you now open your browser and surf to the website, you will see that the installer launches. Enter your new details, and you are good to go.