Recover MySQL Root Password

If you already have the root password, but just want to change it. Then it's simple and can be 

done when MySQL Database is up & running.

/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password’

But If ROOT password is lost then following steps needs to be performed and requires reboot of 

MySQL Database:

STOP MySQL Service:

/etc/init.d/mysql stop

START MySQL Without grants:

mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables &

Connect to mysql server using mysql client:

mysql -u root

Setup new MySQL root user password

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set password=PASSWORD("NEW-PASSWORD") where User='root';
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> quit

Stop MySQL Server:

# /etc/init.d/mysql stop

Start MySQL server and test it

# /etc/init.d/mysql start

# mysql -u root -p