- 1 year ago
Postgresql (PgAdmin4) password changed (without me telling it to) on my local and I now cannot log in
If the PostgreSQL password was changed without your knowledge and you are unable to log in to PgAdmin4, you can try the following steps to regain access:
Reset PostgreSQL Password: First, try resetting the PostgreSQL password to a known value. Open a command prompt or terminal and navigate to the PostgreSQL installation directory (usually located in
C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\bin
on Windows). Run the following command to reset the password for the default PostgreSQL user (postgres
):psql -U postgres
This will open a prompt where you can enter SQL commands. To change the password, use the following SQL command:
sqlALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'new_password';
Replace
'new_password'
with the password you want to set. After changing the password, exit the psql prompt by typing\q
.Update pg_hba.conf: If resetting the password doesn't work, it's possible that the PostgreSQL server is not configured to allow password-based authentication for local connections. To check and update the configuration, follow these steps:
a. Locate the
pg_hba.conf
file, which is usually located in thedata
directory of your PostgreSQL installation (e.g.,C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\<version>\data\pg_hba.conf
).b. Open
pg_hba.conf
with a text editor and look for a line that allows local connections using themd5
method. It should look something like this:csshost all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
c. If such a line is not present or is commented out (starts with
#
), add or uncomment it to allow password-based authentication for local connections.d. Save the changes to
pg_hba.conf
and restart the PostgreSQL server.Check Log Files: If none of the above solutions work, check the PostgreSQL log files for any error messages or clues about what might have caused the password change. The log files are usually located in the
data/pg_log
directory of your PostgreSQL installation.
If you still cannot log in after trying these steps, it's possible that someone else with administrative access made the password change, or there may be other configuration issues. In such cases, you may need to reach out to the system administrator or database administrator for further assistance.