How To Change Admin Username in WordPress – Tutorial

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Change WordPress Admin Username
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Whenever we talk about WordPress security, the very first suggestion is to change the WordPress default username.

As the WordPress default username is  “admin”, hackers already have your username, and it makes it easier for them to find your password using brute force.

If your web hosting does not use any login attempt security or a limit-login WordPress plugin, you might end up losing your WordPress blog access.

If you use Fantastico or Simple script to install WordPress, you get to change the username of your blog. If you instal WordPress 3.2 or above, you can change and set any other username. But, if you happen to be running a WordPress blog with a default username, i.e., admin, you need to follow this article and change your username right away.

There are many ways to change your default WordPress username:

  • PHPMyAdmin
  • WordPress Plugin

PHPMyAdmin is a geeky way, but if you enjoy doing most of the thing using PHPMyAdmin, you will enjoy this method.

Changing WordPress default username using PhpMyAdmin

You need to access your PHPMyAdmin, which you can do using any WordPress plugin or cPanel. Login to your cPanel and navigate to PHPMyAdmin.

Once you are inside PHPMyAdmin, select your WordPress database and follow next instruction.

Wordpress Data base
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Select your WordPress database

Once you are inside the database, look for WP_users and click on browse button as shown in the image below.

Click on the browse button
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Click on the browse button

Now, you will see your username and the encrypted form of your password.

Prevent your wordrpress blog from being hacked
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click on the pencil icon

Click on the pencil icon to change your WordPress login users name and password.

New wordpress login username
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Enter the new login username in front of the user_login and new password in front of the user_pass.

Once you have entered the new login username or/and password, click on the drop down present in front of the user_pass and select MD5 (this will encrypt your password).

Manual method:

There is another trick but that’s a manual process, and quite lengthy to be honest. In that process:

  • Create a new user with admin privilege.
  • Log in using the new username.
  • Delete admin username.
  • Attribute all posts and comments to your username.
Of all the methods, a plugin is the fastest and the easiest method to change WordPress default usernames. If you are still using admin as your WordPress login name, follow any of the above methods and make your WP blog more secure.

Do let us know if you too have updated your username. Don’t forget to subscribe to our email newsletter to receive more WordPress security tips.

Here are a few hand-picked guides for you to read next:

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20 thoughts on “How To Change Admin Username in WordPress – Tutorial”

  1. sudarsan panda

    I am searching this topic “change admin username” in google but Your post made my day so easy and now I am happy to read this article..thanks a lot to provide a awesome article.

  2. divakara ganesh

    Hellow Shoaib Hussain,

    You provided great info. I think changing username and password through phpMyadmin is great choice.

  3. Alexis

    I seriously can’t get enough of this site! I don’t comment often but I should start because there is so much incredibly helpful information here. Thanks so much for taking the time to put together these post, they are very helpful!

  4. Ramesh Singh

    As usual you have written a good post, it will help people tremendously.

  5. adeem

    As usual your tutorials are easy to understand with detailed pictures. I know how many bloggers struggle with changing their username. This tutorial solves that problem. Like I always say, I wish I had seen this tutorial during my newbie days.

  6. Anil

    Thanks a lot for such a valuable information. It was my very first visit at phpMyAdmin and I found it very interesting. The credit goes to you.

    Thanks once again. 🙂

  7. John Coldwell

    There is no date I can see on this post, but I installed the WP-Optimize plugin on your recommendation so i could change the admin name and it is not listed. I see by the Change Log for WP Optimize that “security tools” have been removed!

  8. Arvind Kumar

    Thanks for the tip. I changed my username after reading this article. Now WP is secured from username point of view.

  9. BLOG404

    I remember once my blog got hacked and i used the same method months ago to reset pass via cpanel . But its not user friendly !

  10. Alex

    The Manual one sounds a lot more easier then going to the myphpadmin. but as what the top comment said use wp-optimize plugin which can be trusted. We have that also 🙂

  11. Shubham Pandey

    thanks for sharing this,nice information..i changed my wordpress directory name from cpanel then i again change the my directory name in default but after that it is showing a 404 error in opening that directory can you plz tell me the solution of this problem?

  12. Rakesh

    Plugin method is the most suggested method and most of the time newcomer love to install plugin instead of manual method, They does not risk breaking their website. But plugins can also increase the load on your wordpress site.

  13. Mihir

    Thanks shoaib. When I read the title of this post at that time I thought I would be a basic article but this is the detailed one. Thanks for this. In my case, I am a victim of brute force attack. Hope this will prevent others.

  14. Dean Saliba

    I would much rather do the manual edit than use yet another plugin, too many will slow your blog down. But I can see that many people would rather use a plugin then risk editing the database themselves and ruining it.

  15. Aryan

    Yes we can Secure our sites from brute force attack by not using default usernames like admin or administrator.
    We can also secure wordpress sites from brute force attack by Using Login Lock Plugin.

  16. Rohit

    Very nice tricks. Maybe, the Php My Admin method is better as plugins increase site load. Actually, this trick can stop others from keep trying to your ‘admin’ default username.
    Thanks for sharing 🙂

  17. Doug Spence

    Thanks for sharing the article I have changed my name on WP through this article..

  18. Vinay

    I tried the phpmyadmin way, but it didn’t workout and I faced with an Internal Service Error. Thanks to the immediate help from my HostGator technicians, it got sorted out. I later used the Wp-Optimize plugin, and it worked like charm. Thanks.

  19. Ubaid

    I would suggest you to use Wp-Optimize plugin instead. It directly allows you to rename the login userid. This avoids you to go through all the trouble of changing values in the database manually. Give it a try!

    1. hitesh

      ubaid how to work with wp optimize plugin , there isnt any option provided as such !

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