security wordpress

How to Change Default Username of WordPress for Security

By default WordPress set the default username as Admin at the time of installation, if you don’t set an admin username. This will throw you in risk if you don’t change default username, because hackers know very well that most of the users install WordPress with the default username and a simple password. As a result, it may possibly for the hackers make a force attack that will take down your WordPress blog. Therefore, to ensure the security of your blog, make a unique admin username and a strong password for your website.

There are various methods to change default username. Below I have mentioned some methods that you can follow:

Change Default Username using phpMyAdmin

You will enjoy this method if you enjoy doing most of the thing using phpMyAdmin. To do this, first you need to access your phpMyAdmin using cPanel or any other hosting platform. If you have access, then follow the steps below:

  • Login to cPanel and navigate to phpMyAdmin.
    cpanel phpmyadmin
  • Inside the phpMyAdminn, find your WordPress database and click on the link.
  • Inside WordPress database, search for ‘wp_users’ and click on Browse button as shown in the image below.
    browse wp_users
  • Here, you will see the lists of all username and encrypted form of the password. Click on the pencil icon (see the image) that’s shown on the left to the username, which you want to change.
    edit username
  • Now, you can change the username and/or password of your selected user. Simply, enter the new unique username and a strong password inside the value of ‘user_login’ and ‘user_pass’ field. Make sure that you have selected MD5 from the drop down lists in the ‘user_pass’ field, this will encrypt your password.
    change username password
  • Once you have everything done, click on Go Button, and that’s all.

Change Default Username Using WordPress Admin Panel

You can also change username and/or password by using WordPress admin panel, which is a little bit lengthy process. To do this, just follow the steps below:

  • At first, login to your WordPress dashboard as Admin.
  • Create a new user profile with a unique name and a secure password. To make the password strong you can use mix characters and numeric digits. You have to specify a different email address to do this.
  • Set the new user role as administrator.
  • Click on Add New User button and then logout.
  • Using the newly created username and password, login again.
  • Delete the default Admin
  • You will need to confirm that what you should do with the posts and links owned by Admin Simply, attribute all posts and links to the new user and click on the Confirm Deletion button.
    delete admin user
  • After that, you can change the email address with your preferred one, if you want.

That’s all; you have just ensured WordPress login security.

Change Default Username Using WordPress Plugin

If you think that above two procedures are hard to implement for you, then there is an easiest way to change username and/or password. Simply, use a plugin named WP-Optimize. Using this plugin, you can easily change any username you require. You can also optimize the database and from the database can delete all the revisions of posts.

wp optimize plugin

Just follow the steps below to change the username you want by using this plugin:

  • At first, install and activate the plugin.
  • Go to WP-Optimize settings.
  • In the old username field write admin.
  • In the new username field, enter your preferred unique user name.
  • Finally, click on Process button and you are done.

That’s all, for now. I think, now you can easily alter the default username of your WordPress blog for security purposes.

If you find this tutorial helpful or want to share your opinion, feel free to comment us.