How to reset user password

There are a few ways to reset the password of a user.

Rake Task

Introduced in GitLab 13.9.

GitLab provides a Rake Task to reset passwords of users using their usernames, which can be invoked by the following command:

sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:password:reset"

GitLab asks for a username, a password, and a password confirmation. Upon giving proper values for them, the password of the specified user is updated.

The Rake task also takes the username as an argument, as shown in the example below:

sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:password:reset[johndoe]"

NOTE: To reset the default admin password, run this Rake task with the username root, which is the default username of that admin account.

Rails console

The Rake task is capable of finding users via their usernames. However, if only user ID or email ID of the user is known, Rails console can be used to find user using user ID and then change password of the user manually.

Start a Rails console

Find the user either by username, user ID or email ID:

user = User.find_by_username 'exampleuser'

#or

user = User.find(123)

#or

user = User.find_by(email: 'user@example.com')

Reset the password

user.password = 'secret_pass'
user.password_confirmation = 'secret_pass'

When using this method instead of the Users API, GitLab sends an email to the user stating that the user changed their password. If the password was changed by an administrator, execute the following command to notify the user by email:
```
user.send_only_admin_changed_your_password_notification!
```
Save the changes:
```
user.save!
```
Exit the console, and then try to sign in with your new password.

NOTE: You can also reset passwords by using the Users API.

Password reset does not appear to work

If you can't sign on with the new password, it might be because of the reconfirmation feature.

Try fixing this on the rails console. For example, if your new root password isn't working:

Start a Rails console.
Find the user and skip reconfirmation, using any of the methods above:
```
user = User.find(1)
user.skip_reconfirmation!
```
Try to sign in again.

Reset your root password

The previously described steps can also be used to reset the root password.

In normal installations where the username of root account hasn't been changed manually, the Rake task can be used with username root to reset the root password.

If the username was changed to something else and has been forgotten, one possible way is to reset the password using Rails console with user ID 1 (in almost all the cases, the first user is the default admin account).