Thousands of websites get hacked every year, and most of them are compromised because of their poor security.

As you know, brute force attack is one of the most common attacks done by hackers. It’s directly related to the login page of the website.

I am sure, you have read it many times that it’s essential to have a secure admin username and the password. And the most important thing is that you should keep changing the username.

Sometimes, people forget that using a public wi-fi may not be as secure as they think. So it’s never recommended to log in to your website while in a public place.

If you have been using WordPress for a few years, you may not that when you used to install WordPress for the first time, the username used to be “admin.”

That’s the default username but not anymore. Nowadays, web hosting companies are offering an option to choose your username while installing WordPress.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn the easiest way to change your username using cPanel.

Access the Database to Update the Username Through its Tables

You should know that the login details are stored in the database of the website. You have to access it using phpMyAdmin.

I hope you know the process. If you don’t, I am going to walk you through. Just follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1

Log into the cPanel account of your web hosting

. Depending on the web hosting you choose, the appearance may be different but the options will be the same.

If you use Bluehost, it will be all blue but if you use Inmotionhosting, you will see the latest version of cPanel. And so does when having Siteground as your web hosting.

Search for the Databases’ section and click on the phpMyAdmin icon.

Step 2:

Once you do it, a new tab will open to you. From the left-hand-side navigation menu,

you have to choose the name of the database of your website

I hope you know that. If you don’t, you have to go back and open the database wizard to check it.

Just click on the name and you will see many new database tables will appear in front of you. Here you can see, wp_ is the database table prefix but it’s not necessary that you will find it for your database.

For security reasons, it’s always recommended to update it after installing WordPress. So maybe your security plugin has updated it.

Step 3

As you are here to change the admin username,

you need to open the wp_users database table

. Just click on it and you can see the list of users available on your website.

Step 4

You may get confused after seeing the different kinds of characters. But it’s totally fine. There is nothing to worry about.

All

you need is to click on the Edit link shown in front of the username you want to change

. If you’re confused as if which is the username you want to update, let me make it clear.

Under the user_login table, you can see your current login username. Choose the one you want to update.

Step 5

You will see a new page with the same information about the user. The only difference is that here you see the columns instead of rows.

There is nothing much to do here. All

you need is to replace the old username with a new one showing in the user_login row

Don’t worry about varchar and all other technical details. Just update the username and click on the Go button shown below. You can find it after scrolling a bit.

Now try logging in with your new username and if it works, congrats, you have successfully changed the admin username for your WordPress website.

While doing so, you may be wondering about the nickname of the user. Well, you can see in the screenshot, in this case, “root” is the username as well as the nickname.

But I could change it but I didn’t. In your case, it will be different. Depending on your choice, you can update it.

Note: This method is used when you don’t have the access to your WordPress admin panel.

Sometimes when you’re locked away of the admin dashboard, you need to change the username to get access to the website.

As I mentioned before, the database is the key to many crucial details of the website.

I Hope You Can Easily Update Your Current Username

Having a backdoor in a website can ruin everything so it’s always better to take every possible step to secure it. As I mentioned above, getting locked out of the website is one of the common WordPress errors.

It’s important that you should learn to get rid of such error and enjoy writing on your blog.

Let’s say one of your employees was handling your website and he is away and you can’t contact him. And without the username, you can’t log in.

Well, in such case, you can change the username using the database from cPanel. Follow the step by step tutorial and within a few minutes, you will have the access to your website.

The same procedure can be followed for changing the password and the nickname.

Conclusion

This can help you in two different ways. Either you maintain your website security or you want to access the website when not having an idea about the username but having the password.

Let me tell you that you can’t try hit and trial method here because if your security plugin has the login lockdown, your IP can be blocked.

So it’s better to learn the authentic way to login to your website. If you still face any problem, feel free to ask in the comment section or you can send an email using the contact form.

Enjoy writing, keep growing.

Note: online security threats are becoming more prevalent each year. One important way to make sure that you are protected is to work with trusted companies in the hosting industry. leading hosting companies will not only secure your server, but will also provide you with tools to enhance the security of your website. This is why HostAdvice recommends consulting with our list of Best Web Hosts, where you will find the top hosting companies in the industry.