Merchant Password Recovery

From AbleCommerce Wiki

Sometimes if you are not careful you can lock yourself out of AC7. If you have forgotten password for your merchant login, your first option would be to use the forgot password feature. However this only works if you have your email address and SMTP server correctly configured. If this is not the case, you have some options for recovering access to the merchant administration website.

Reset Password via Database Query

If you have direct access to your database, you can use this simple alternative to reset your password. All you must do is open your database and execute this query:

UPDATE ac_UserPasswords
SET Password = 'newpasswordvalue',
PasswordFormat = 'CLEAR'
WHERE UserId = (SELECT UserId FROM ac_Users WHERE Username = 'yourusernamehere')
AND PasswordNumber = 1

This resets the current password to your chosen value. You should change your password immediately after because your current password is unencrypted in the database.

If you have locked out your account due to too many login attempts, you can also clear this up with another update query:

UPDATE ac_Users 
SET IsLockedOut = 0
WHERE Username = 'yourusernamehere'

If you have troubles that go deeper than this (such as a deleted mechant account or removal from the admin group) you should use the more comprehensive ResetAdmin.aspx script.

Reset Admin Account via Script

Locate the original distribution files for your vesrion of AbleCommerce. Within the Install folder, you will find a file named ResetAdmin.aspx. First, you will need to recreate the Install folder for your store and place a copy of this file there. Then you will need to edit the file using notepad or another text editor.

There are three things you have to set at the top of the file:

        //BY DEFAULT THIS SCRIPT IS DISABLED
        //CHANGE THE LINE BELOW FROM FALSE TO TRUE TO USE THIS SCRIPT
        bool enabled = false;
 
        //THIS IS THE USER THAT WILL BE CREATED OR RESET
        //YOU CAN UPDATE THEM IF YOU WANT TO USE SOMETHING OTHER THAN DEFAULT
        string userName = "admin@ablecommerce.com";
        string password = "password";

Make adjustments as needed for the username and password. Then save the file and visit it from the browser. The script will create the account if it is missing and ensure the account has super user permissions. It will also reset the password to the specified value. After running the script, you will be able to log in with this account

Once you have recovered the admin account, you should delete the Install folder from your store for security purposes.