How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

When WordPress is installed it sets your login name to “admin” by default. If you want to change it you will usually need to manually edit the WordPress database, which might seem a bit intimidating for people not familiar with MySQL/phpMyAdmin. That’s why I created a small plugin that will let you easily edit your username from within WordPress.

How It Works

The plugin adds a new menu item called “Change Username” to the “Users” menu on the Dashboard. Clicking it will display a form where you can enter your new login name. All you need to do is enter the desired username in the form and click “Save Changes”. The plugin will then automatically perform the required database operations and let you log in with your new username right away.

Download Plugin

change-admin-username.zip (3 KB)
I’ve tested the plugin on WP 2.6 – 2.8.3 but it should be compatible with most older versions, too – all the way down to 2.0.x. If you find any bugs feel free to leave a comment below.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 13:54 and is filed under Applications, Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

68 Responses to “How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress”

Pages: « 1 2 [3] Show All

  1. 39
    White Shadow says:
    June 14, 2009 at 21:48

    You are correct – removing the restriction would allow anyone to change their username. And no, it doesn’t check for duplicate username.

  3. 41
    Kenny says:
    July 27, 2009 at 05:37

    It works well with WP 2.8.2 as well, tks!

  4. 42
    Tunde says:
    August 6, 2009 at 22:04

    Hi White Shadow,

    I just wanted to say a very big ´Thank You´for creating this plugin…I´ve spent the last 2 weeks trying figure out how to change my ´admin´ username using phpMyAdmin and just as I was about to give up and pay someone to make the changes for me…I found this post! What luck! It took me 2 minutes to do what I´ve been trying to do for 2 weeks!

    …and just so you know, I´m using the plugin on WP v 2.8.3 and had absolutely no problems installing, activating it and making my changes…I´ll let you know if any problems arise in the future.

    Thanks again for all your hard work..stay blessed :-)

    Tunde x

  5. 43
    تغییر نام کاربری پیش فرض در وردپرس | ITLine says:
    August 9, 2009 at 21:56

    [...] به آسانی شرح داده است. همچنین دو افزونه WPVN – Username Changer و Change Admin Username برای این کار وجود [...]

  6. 44
    توییت امشب (مطالب غیر سیاسی) « جوون روستایی says:
    August 10, 2009 at 23:26

    [...] به آسانی شرح داده است. همچنین دو افزونه WPVN – Username Changer و Change Admin Username برای این کار وجود [...]

  7. 45
    Rob Fuller says:
    August 12, 2009 at 07:55

    Please contact me, I have a cool feature idea for this plugin that you might find handy as well.

  8. 46
    תוסף מתורגם - שינוי שם משתמש ראשי ADMIN | עולם הוורדפרס, צילום ומה שביניהם - BETA 2 says:
    August 14, 2009 at 11:11

    [...] מעניינים, אחד מהתוספים שנתקלתי בהם הוא התוסף הבא שנקרא change admin username מבית היוצר של W-Shadow.com. האמת שלדעתי הרבה משתמשים יאהבו [...]

  9. 47
    luc says:
    August 21, 2009 at 18:00

    thx, i will try it

  10. 48
    harry says:
    August 25, 2009 at 20:58

    Hi shadow…

    I read with intersest about the plug in….I just installed WP and didn’t have a clue about using a different username, so I would like to change the admin name.(used fantistico)….Anyway, I Dl’d the folder, unzipped it, got it into the files on my server….but they are not showing up in the DB….

    thanks

    harry

  11. 49
    White Shadow says:
    August 26, 2009 at 00:06

    I’m afraid your comment is somewhat confusing. Are you sure you installed the plugin correctly? You need to copy the change-admin-username folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory and then activate the plugin in the “Plugins” tab of the WP dashboard. Then follow the instructions in the post above.

  12. 50
    harry says:
    August 26, 2009 at 01:36

    Hi WS,

    thanks for replying. I see it in the “plug in” files next to the other ones I DL’d….But when I go to the dasboard, I do not see it listed in the installed section….yet the other plug-ins I have tried do show up. I did unzip it before transferring it with File Zilla, and like I said, the other plug-ins I downloaded do show up.

    Any idea why it does not show up in the dashboard?..

    thanks for taking the time to answer..

    Harry

  13. 51
    White Shadow says:
    August 26, 2009 at 02:37

    This is probably obvious, but have you checked the “Inactive” tab?

    Anyway, it is nevertheless a problem with the installation (it couldn’t possible be a bug in the plugin itself because you haven’t even activated it yet). Maybe the .php file got corrupted during unzipping or the FTP transfer? Try doing it again.

    Another thing you could check is whether the webserver has sufficient privileges to read the plugin file.

  14. 52
    harry says:
    August 26, 2009 at 03:45

    Thanks WP, I will try that tomorrow and get back…

    I think its the corruption angle myself….I’m sure Host gator is fine with privileges as the other plug ins have worked fine…

  15. 53
    Andrei says:
    August 31, 2009 at 09:10

    Thanks. It works. Simple and effective :)

  16. 54
    harry says:
    August 31, 2009 at 15:38

    Hi WS,….Good Morning, I wanted to give you an update and to say thanks. I deleted the plug in, repeated the same procedure( DL to desktop, unzip, FTR through file zilla)….It shows up in my Host gator Files, but did not show up in the WP Dashboard.

    Bur As I was looking at everything, I noticed an upload button in the Dashboard “plug-ins” section which allows you to upload a zipped folder from the PC….. So I did that instead. Installed it, and it worked fine……

    I have since tried other plug ins through FTP, and they all showed up, so it must be some sort of glitch…..

    Bur as long as it’s installed, I’m happy….

    If I can ever help you with RC cars, or anything on my site, let me know….

  17. 55
    White Shadow says:
    August 31, 2009 at 16:06

    Well, I’m glad you got it working.

  19. 57
    ziRta says:
    September 5, 2009 at 20:11

    Hi WS,
    I really appreciate your plugin but it isn’t working for me :( It changed my admin username but now i can’t seem to login neither with the old nor the new username. If I delete the plugin via ftp, can it be fixed?

  20. 58
    White Shadow says:
    September 5, 2009 at 20:21

    Try clearing your cookies first.

    If that doesn’t help, you’ll need to go into the database with something like phpMyAdmin and manually change the username of the appropriate record back to the old value in the wp_users table. Just deleting the plugin won’t be enough.

  21. 59
    ziRta says:
    September 6, 2009 at 08:34

    Been there, done that… I renamed the username back to admin via phpmyadmin, but when I log in, the wp-login.php stays blank… If I type a different username or password, it marks them as incorrect, and insists that my browser is blocking WP’s cookies and I shall activate that -but it is done. The site stays functional, at least. Maybe it’s my fault, i messed around with the .htaccess and things, trying to make the installation safer.

  22. 60
    White Shadow says:
    September 6, 2009 at 12:26

    I’m now more inclined to believe it’s one of those “.htaccess and things”. Changing the username in the DB is the only thing the plugin does, so anything on top of that would be caused by something else.

  23. 61
    9 Important Steps On Securing Your WordPress Blog | Aurstad says:
    September 7, 2009 at 21:25

    [...] You may also use a WordPress Plugin to change your username. There are several plugins out there that will help you do this. The plugin I recommend: http://w-shadow.com/blog/2008/07/24/change-admin-username-in-wordpress/ [...]

  25. 63
    Plugin : Change Admin Username | จุ๊บแจง says:
    September 17, 2009 at 12:21

    [...] ของ wordpress เล่นๆ ก็ไปเจอกับตัวนี้ครับ ( Change Admin Username ) ผมว่ามีประโยชน์ทีเดียว [...]

  26. 64
    8 Simple Steps to Securing your WordPress blog | Jennerosity says:
    September 21, 2009 at 03:44

    [...] account.  If the idea of deleting that admin account makes you a little uneasy, there’s a simple plug-in that will allow you to just change the username of that account instead of creating a second [...]

  27. 65
    WordPress Plugins – Change Admin Username - Jeff Blogs says:
    October 5, 2009 at 22:15

    [...] I found was a WordPress plug-in written by Janis Elsts appropriately named Change Admin Username. This simple plug-in allows you to change the User ID of the WordPress administrator without [...]

  28. 66
    بزرگترين پرتال ايرانيان » Blog Archive » تغییر نام کاربری پیش فرض در وردپرس says:
    October 9, 2009 at 20:02

    [...] به آسانی شرح داده است. همچنین دو افزونه WPVN – Username Changer و Change Admin Username برای این کار وجود [...]

  29. 67
    6 dicas de segurança para o seu blog Wordpress | Kerkeberos.net - Tecnologia e Informação says:
    October 14, 2009 at 04:51

    [...] nome de administrador predefinido sem aceder à base de dados e correr riscos, poderá sempre usar este plugin que lhe permitirá fazer tudo de uma maneira mais [...]

  30. 68
    How to change the default admin username in word press blog | Dr Bikash dot Com says:
    October 31, 2009 at 16:28

    [...] Click here to download directly from the maker’s site. [...]

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