No access as administrator

Software Support
1

Good morning, I migrated an installation of OJS 2.4.8 to a new server, using backup files from the main directory and the SQL database.
The site works but the passwords do not, I cannot access my administrator account, the function “forgot your password” does not work either.
How can I recover access?

2

Hi @gtovar,

Quite a challenge. If you have access to the DB you can modify the administrator password directly ini the DB.

Regards, Primož

3

Thanks Primož! if you know how to do it, could you tell me the steps to do it?
I have access to the database, I guess it will be in the access_keys table.

4

Hi @gtovar,

What I have done is to copy password hash from an OJS copy I knew the password to the OJS copy I have had problems with unknown password.

Regards, Primož

5

Thanks Primož, if I find a solution to this I will add it here in case someone has the same problem.

6

Hi @gtovar,

To reset a user’s password, follow these steps:

  • Determine the user ID.
    • A user ID can be fetched from the database using one of the following SQL statements:
      • If you have an email address for the user (e.g. pkpsupport@sfu.ca): SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email = ‘pkp-support@sfu.ca’;
      • If you have a username (e.g. admin): SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE username = ‘admin’;
  • Determine the password encryption method. See the encryption setting in the [security] section of the config.inc.php configuration file. This will be sha1 or md5.
  • Execute the following SQL to reset the password. For example, for user ID 15 with md5 encryption, to reset the password to “newPasswordHere”: UPDATE users SET password=MD5(CONCAT(username, ‘newPasswordHere’)) WHERE user_id = 15;

Kind Regards,
Patricia M.
Public Knowledge Project Team

7

Thanks Patricia, is it possible that the problem is with the database connection?
Should all passwords work when restoring the database?