How to update Joomla admin logins

Lost access to your Joomla administrator account or need to update your login details? Depending on your level of access, you can update your account details from the Joomla Administrator Dashboard, recover a forgotten username or password, or make changes directly in the database using phpMyAdmin.

 

On this page

• Via Joomla admin page
• Via the Forgot Username and Password buttons
• Via phpMyAdmin in cPanel

 

Via Joomla admin page

You can update your administrator account details from your user profile, provided you can log in to the Joomla Administrator Dashboard using your current administrator username and password.

1. Log in to your Joomla administration page using yourdomain.com/administrator (replace yourdomain.com with your website’s domain name or subdomain).
2. Open your administrator account profile.
3. Update any of the following details as needed:
   • Name
   • Username
   • Email Address
   • Password
     Note: If you're changing your password, enter and confirm the new password.
4. Click the Save to apply the changes.

 

Via the Forgot Username and Password buttons

If you are unable to log in because you have forgotten your username or password, Joomla provides built-in account recovery options.

1. Access the Joomla administrator login page using yourdomain.com/administrator (replace yourdomain.com with your website’s domain name or subdomain).
2. Click either:
   • Forgot your username? if you cannot remember your username, or
   • Forgot your password? if you need to reset your password.
      
3. Enter the email address associated with your administrator account.
4. Follow the instructions sent to your registered email address.

 

Via phpMyAdmin in cPanel

If you no longer have access to the Joomla Administrator Dashboard and cannot use the account recovery options, you can update your administrator account directly through the Joomla database.

1. Access your cPanel.
2. Go to Files, then select File Manager.
3. Navigate to the directory where your Joomla is installed and locate the configuration.php file.
4. Right-click on the file and select Edit.
5. Click the Edit button again.
6. Find the following line: ;public $db = 'your_database_name';
   
   Take note of the database name as shown in the image below:
   
   
   
    
7. Go back to the cPanel homepage.
8. Scroll down to Databases and select phpMyAdmin.
   
   
   
    
9. Click the database name that was obtained from Step 6.
10. Click the table ending in _users (for example, jos_users).
11. Click Edit on the row that corresponds to the logins that need to be updated.
    
    
    
     
12. Enter the new details that you want to be changed.
     
    • name: Enter the preferred name of the login profile inside the box.
    • username: This is the username needed to login to Joomla’s admin page.
    • email: This is the registered email address of the user account where the reset link will be sent if you can no longer access the Joomla administration page.
    • password: If you need to reset the password, update the password field and then change it again from within Joomla after successfully logging in.
    
    
    
     
13. Scroll down and click Go to save the changes.
    
    
    
     
14. est the updated credentials by logging in to the Joomla administrator login page using yourdomain.com/administrator (replace yourdomain.com with your domain name or subdomain).
    
    

 

Additional notes

• Always use a strong, unique password for administrator accounts.
• Ensure your administrator email address is valid and accessible for account recovery.
• Make a backup of your database before making direct changes through phpMyAdmin.