How to Recover WordPress Account

WordPress is a very popular free, open-source tool used for website creation. It is a content-management system used widely across the globe. WordPress is described to be the most popular and the simplest way to create your own website or blog. Presently, more than 40% of all the websites on the internet are powered by WordPress. This means that, out of 3 websites you visit, at least one is powered by WordPress. You can make use of this tool even if you have very little or no knowledge of programming. It is used to build a wide variety of websites like business websites, blogs, e-commerce stores, social networks, portfolios, and a lot more.

Though WordPress comes in handy for both huge and small websites, you may face some issues with it. In certain cases, you may find it difficult to log in to your WordPress account. This may happen for several reasons – you may have forgotten your username, your password, and a lot more. You may even have lost access to your account. If you are facing any such problem and searching for a solution to recover your account, this is the right place for you. Keep reading to find your problem and you can easily recover your WordPress account.

Case 1 – You Lost your WordPress Password

Though it is very important to remember your password, you may tend to forget it in many situations. If you are managing multiple sites at the same time, or if you have stored your password on your device and lost it, you may forget your password. But don’t worry. WordPress provides you with a lot of options to reset your account and recover your password.

Method 1 – Reset WordPress Password

WordPress provides you an option to replace your password with a new one. Just follow the steps mentioned below and you can regain access to your account –

1. Go to the official WordPress login page of your website.
2. Click on Lost your password located at the bottom of the login form.
3. This will take you to the WordPress Password Reset page. On this page, you can either type in your WordPress username or your registered email address.
4. Click on Get New Password.
5. After this, you will receive a password reset email to your linked email address from WordPress.
6. Open the email and it will contain the link to reset your password.
7. Go to the link and enter a new password.
8. You have now successfully changed your password and you can now access your WordPress account.

However, if you face any trouble with the above method, don’t worry. There are other possible options that you can use to recover your account.

Method 2 – WordPress Two Step Authentication with Email Link

WordPress also provides a method of a secure login. It enables you with two-step authentication before you enter your account. If you have enabled two-step authentication on WordPress, then you need to follow the steps mentioned below –

1. Go to the official login page of your WordPress website.
2. The initial login page will have an option named Email me a login link. Click on it.
3. On clicking on it, WordPress will send you an email with the login link to the email address registered with your WordPress account.
4. You just need to open your received email and click on the link. This will give you access to your WordPress Account.

This method is an effective alternative if you forget your password. But however, this method may not suit you if you don’t have access to your email or if you have deleted your email address. In such cases, keep reading and you will find the best method that helps you recover your account.

Method 3 – Using the WordPress Account Recovery Form

In case any of the above methods do not suit you, then this is the right option for you. In this method, you will have to submit an Account Recovery Form to WordPress. Here is how you do it.

1. Open the WordPress Account Recovery Form.
2. This form will ask you to fill in your account details. Fill in all the required details. If you find it difficult to fill in the form, here is how you do it –
   1. In the first textbox, enter your username or your email address that you previously used to create the WordPress account. If you don’t know both your email address and your username, then leave the box blank and click on the small checkbox given below.
   2. Enter the URL of your website or blog for which you are using this account in the second textbox.
   3. In the third textbox, enter the email address that you currently use. If this is the same email address as the one that you registered, enter it again. You will receive all the updates regarding your account recovery in the email address that you enter here.
   4. After this, WordPress asks you for some details to prove that you own this site. For this, you may have to submit certain Proof of Ownership. The more proofs you submit, the higher is your rate of recovery. Here are the items that you can submit –
      1. Transaction ID – If you have ever made an upgrade to your WordPress site, a Transaction ID will be generated with your payment. This may be through PayPal, credit card or any other possible method. You just need to go to the payment platform and get that particular Transaction ID. If you have this ID, you have to click on the checkbox titled Do you have a transaction ID?. Now, enter the transaction ID in the textbox below.
      2. Account Activation URL – When you create a WordPress account, you will receive an account activation email to your registered email address. This email will contain a link to activate your WordPress account. If you still have the activation email in your inbox, then copy the link from your emial. Check the box titled Do you have an activation URL or key?, and paste the link in the textbox that appears below.
      3. Two factor Authentication Codes – If you have enabled two-factor authentication, just check the box titled Do you have two-factor authentication codes?, and enter the last authentication code that you received.
   5. You can also add additional details that you think will help recovering your account. Or if you are facing any other problems with logging in, explain the problem in detail.
   6. Click on Recover my Account!
3. After you have completed and submitted you Account Recovery Form, one of WordPress Happiness Engineers will contact you soon and will help you with the recovery process.

Method 4 – Ask an Admin to Reset your Password

WordPress content management system allows your website to be managed by multiple admins. So this provides you another option to recover your password. If you have other administrators on your WordPress site, then they can help you edit your profile and reset your password details. However, if you are the only admin on your site, then this method is not suitable for you. You can continue reading and use any other method that suits your needs. Follow the steps mentioned below to help an admin change your password –

1. First of all, contact any of your other admins to help you out.
2. After the other admin logs in to his account, he has to click on Users from the WordPress Dashboard.
3. From that, go to the All Users page. A list of all the users of the website is displayed here. From the list, the other admin has to find and select your name to edit your profile.
4. There is an option for Account Management. Click on it.
5. Now select the Set New Password button. In this page, he can change your log in password.
6. After changing this password, ask the other admin to share the password securely to you.
7. Once you receive your password, you can now access your account. You can even change it later for security purposes.

Method 5 – Changing WordPress Password Through cPanel

In this method, we are directly going to change your password in the cPanel using phpMyAdmin. It works only if you are an admin of your WordPress site. If you are not an admin, then contact any one of your other admins and perform Method 4. This method is not suitable for you. As we are directly altering the main database, you need to be very careful in this method. A little change to the database can cause huge problems to your site. The procedure given below is generic and the names and layout may change according to the hosting provider you use.

1. Firstly, log in to your hosting account.
2. Access cPanel from your hosting account.
3. Move on to the Databases tab and click on phpMyAdmin.
4. This requires you to log in again. Now, log in with your phpMyAdmin account.
5. After logging in, a list of all databases used by your site will appear. Click on the WordPress database.
6. From the list of rows inside it, find wp_users table.
7. A number of options are available to the right of wp_users. Click on Browse.
8. After clicking on to Browse, a list of all the user details of your WordPress site will appear here. These details include username, user email and an encrypted password.
9. Locate your name (for which you need to change the password) from the table and click on Edit.
10. Your details will become editable and you are going to change the password now.
11. For this, you will find a column named user_pass. Next to it, a long string of numbers and letters can be found. This is the encrypted form of your previous password. Select the entire content and delete it. You need to be very careful not to delete any other data.
12. Now, fill in the space with your new password (Case Sensitive).
13. After typing in your new password, click on the drop down menu labelled function and select MD5. This is for adding encryption to your data. This step is very important for making your password secure.
14. After checking whether you have done everything right, save all your changes by clicking Save, Update or Go at the bottom of the page.
15. That’s it. You have now successfully changed your password and you can now log in to your WordPress account with your username and new password.

Case 2 – You Deleted Your WordPress Account

There is a great chance that you have deleted your WordPress account either accidentally or manually. There are also certain cases that your account got deleted due to some technical errors. So, if you want to revive your deleted account, WordPress gives you an option!

Like a few other platforms, WordPress gives you a hold period of 30 days. During these 30 days, your account will remain inactive, but will not be deleted from the server database. If you change your mind or if you want to recover your deleted account, you can contact the WordPress support Team. A member of the WordPress Happiness Engineers will contact you in some time and will assist you in recovering your account. However, if it has exceeded 30 days since you deleted your account, then your account is permanently deleted. This means that, you cannot recover your account as it is deleted from the server database.

Apart from this, if you are hosting your website from a high-end company, they will most probably have a backup of your account data. So, all you have to do is to request your backup files from your web host and recover your account. However, a number of other hosting agencies charge you a lot for your backup files. Keeping all of this in your mind, you need to be more careful when you decide to delete your WordPress account.

The Bottom Line

Try out the methods listed above that suit your needs. If you are still having trouble logging in to your WordPress account, then contact the WordPress Support Team. It is a forum where you can type in your problem and a number of articles are available as solutions. If you don’t find your problem listed there, then reach out to the team directly. After reading your query, a WordPress Happiness Engineer will respond to you and will assist you in solving your problems.