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---
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stage: Manage
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group: Authentication and Authorization
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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type: howto
---
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# Reset a user's password **(FREE SELF)**
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You can reset user passwords by using a Rake task, a Rails console, or the
[Users API ](../api/users.md#user-modification ).
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## Prerequisites
To reset a user password, you must be an administrator of a self-managed GitLab instance.
## Use a Rake task
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> [Introduced](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/merge_requests/52347) in GitLab 13.9.
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Use the following Rake task to reset a user's password:
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- **For Omnibus installations**
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```shell
sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:password:reset"
```
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- **For installations from source**
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```shell
bundle exec rake "gitlab:password:reset"
```
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GitLab requests a username, a password, and confirmation of the password. When complete, the user's password is updated.
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The Rake task can take a username as an argument. For example, to reset the password for the user with username
`sidneyjones` :
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- **For Omnibus installations**
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```shell
sudo gitlab-rake "gitlab:password:reset[sidneyjones]"
```
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- **For installations from source**
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```shell
bundle exec rake "gitlab:password:reset[sidneyjones]"
```
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## Use a Rails console
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If you know the username, user ID, or email address, you can use the Rails console to reset their password:
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1. Open a [Rails console ](../administration/operations/rails_console.md ).
1. Find the user:
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- By username:
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```ruby
user = User.find_by_username 'exampleuser'
```
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- By user ID:
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```ruby
user = User.find(123)
```
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- By email address:
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```ruby
user = User.find_by(email: 'user@example.com')
```
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1. Reset the password by setting a value for `user.password` and `user.password_confirmation` . For example, to set a new random
password:
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```ruby
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new_password = ::User.random_password
user.password = new_password
user.password_confirmation = new_password
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```
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1. Optional. Notify the user that an administrator changed their password:
```ruby
user.send_only_admin_changed_your_password_notification!
```
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1. Save the changes:
```ruby
user.save!
```
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1. Exit the console:
```ruby
exit
```
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## Reset the root password
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To reset the root password, follow the steps listed previously.
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- If the root account name hasn't changed, use the username `root` .
- If the root account name has changed and you don't know the new username,
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you might be able to use a Rails console with user ID `1` . In almost all
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cases, the first user is the default administrator account.
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## Troubleshooting
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If the new password doesn't work, it might be [an email confirmation issue ](../user/upgrade_email_bypass.md ). You can
attempt to fix this issue in a Rails console. For example, if a new `root` password isn't working:
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1. Start a [Rails console ](../administration/operations/rails_console.md ).
1. Find the user and skip reconfirmation:
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```ruby
user = User.find(1)
user.skip_reconfirmation!
```
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1. Attempt to sign in again.