There may be lot of reasons you want to change the admin username of your WordPress installation. Especially when you install WordPress through hosting company’s one click installation method (for example, Softaculous installation in SiteGround) the username will be taken from your hosting account login unless you notice and change it before installation.
Some users may also provide usernames like “admin”, “administrator”, “moderator” etc. Later they will understand these usernames are very easy to hack and want to change it from the dashboard. However, WordPress does not allow changing the username through dashboard front end once installed.
Here are some ways to change WordPress username in case you want to change your admin username for any reason.
Changing Admin Username Using Plugin
The easy way to change admin username in WordPress is to use a plugin. Follow the below instructions to install a plugin and change the admin username:
- Go to “Plugins > Add New” section in your WordPress admin panel.
- Search for “username changer” and install a “Username Changer” plugin from WordPress plugins repository.
- This plugin will create s menu under “Users > Username Changer” and navigate to that section.
- Choose your current username from the drop-down and enter the correct new username.
- Hit “Save Changes” button.
After successfully changing the username, you can logout and login to admin panel using the new username. Remember, the admin password will remain same.
When changing the username, if you provide an existing username by mistake, the plugin will show you an error message like below. This will take care there is no duplication of admin ids.
Changing the Username in Database
If you are not interested in using plugin then the other option is to change the username is to edit it directly in your WordPress database. In order to do so, you need to have an access to:
- Database through phpMyAdmin and
- FTP or File Manager access in your hosting cPanel.
Follow the below step by step instructions to change the username:
- Login to your hosting account and navigate to “File Manager” option under cPanel.
- Open “File Manager” and locate “wp-config.php” file available in your root WordPress installation.
- Open “wp-config.php” file and note down the name of your database. Checkout the article on how to view and edit “wp-config.php” file for more information.
- Open “phpMyAdmin” from cPanel.
- Enter your username and password to login to phpMyAdmin.
- Under “Databases” tab click on the database name which you have noted down from your “wp-config.php” file.
- Select the “*_users” table and click on “Edit” as shown in the picture below.
Prefix of the “_users” table may vary based on the data you provided during WordPress installation process. One click installation through hosting companies may add additional prefixes like “wp_abcd_users”.
- The column ID “user_login” is the WordPress admin username and change it to the new value as required.
- Hit the “Go” button on the bottom to save your changes.
What is the Impact of Username Change?
It is not sure why username change is not enabled in the wordpress.org admin dashboard while the same option is enabled for wordpress.com users.
Besides that checkout the following impacts on username change:
- Login id will be your new username.
- Related author name in all posts and author archives will be changed with the new username.
- Ensure to use unique username to avoid another admin user id is used. Modifying database will not check the duplication and result in affecting other admin id in multi admin user environment.
You can just change the display name without changing the actual login name under “User > Your Profile > Display name publicly as”.
Change WordPress Admin Email
Fortunately, changing WordPress admin email is an easy process you can do from the admin panel. Go to your user profile section and change the admin email address. WordPress will send a verification email to the current email. You have to verify the email change so that the new email will take effect after the verification.
Remember, till the time you verify your email address you have to login with your old email address. If you do not have access to the current admin email, you can go to “wp_options” and “wp_users” tables to change the email address.
Alternatively, you can create another admin account and delete the current one by logging through new account.
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