Editing user accounts and their permissions is a role reserved for System Administrators. To change a user's password in Movable Type, you follow the same steps as editing a user's profile:

1. Switch to the System Overview area of Movable Type by clicking on the blog selection menu and choosing "System Overview."

2. Click Manage > Users from the System Overview's main menu. This will open a listing of all users that exist in your system.

3. Locate the user whose password you wish to change and click on their username, which will open the User Profile screen. Here you can change their password, as well as edit basic profile information about the user, optionally create a new personal blog for the user, and optionally assign the user system administrator privileges. See Editing a User's Profile for more information.

WARNING: Please note that only the first eight (8) characters of a Movable Type user's password are significant. This restriction exists due to the way passwords are managed in the Movable Type. Any characters beyond the first eight that a user types into the password field on a Movable Type login page will be ignored when determining if the password provided is correct.

Reset Password for Movable Type User via MySQL ¶

If you are unable to login to Movable Type with user having the system administrator role, but you are able to access your MySQL database, you can reset passwords manually using the following SQL.

1. login to mysql

   $ mysql -u USERNAME -p DATABASENAME
   

2. find id of user

   > select author_name, author_id from mt_author;
   +---------------+-----------+
   | author_name   | author_id |
   +---------------+-----------+
   | beau          |         1 |
   | quinn         |         2 |
   | ryan          |         3 |
   | jono          |         4 |
   +---------------+-----------+
   

3. issue the command using the correct author id from the table

   > update mt_author set author_password = encrypt('foobar') where author_id = 1;
   

WARNING: Please note that only the first eight (8) characters of an author_password are significant. This restriction exists due to the way passwords are managed in the Movable Type. Any characters beyond the first eight that a user types into the password field on a Movable Type login page will be ignored when determining if the password provided is correct.