🤖 Problem: reset local Open-WebUI password
There is a sql database here: ~/Library/Application Support/open-webui/data.
Reset it:
Let’s do this carefully — the tricky part is that Open-WebUI doesn’t store plain text passwords, so we need to generate a properly-hashed password and drop it into the right table.
Step 1: Check the schema and confirm the email you’re targeting
In Terminal, in that same data folder:
sqlite3 webui.db ".schema auth"
sqlite3 webui.db "SELECT id, email, active FROM auth;"
This shows the auth table (separate from user), which is what actually holds passwords. Note the email of the account you want to reset.
Step 2: Generate a new bcrypt password hash
macOS’s built-in Python usually doesn’t have bcrypt installed, so install it first:
pip3 install bcrypt --user
Then generate a hash for your new password (replace YourNewPassword123 with whatever you want):
python3 -c "import bcrypt; print(bcrypt.hashpw(b'YourNewPassword123', bcrypt.gensalt()).decode())"
This prints a hash that looks like $2b$12$.... — copy that whole string.
Step 3: Update the database
sqlite3 webui.db "UPDATE auth SET password='PASTE_HASH_HERE' WHERE email='the-email-you-found@example.com';"
Make sure to keep the single quotes around the hash and email exactly as shown.
Step 4: Verify and log in
- Quit and relaunch the Open-WebUI app fully (not just close the window).
- Sign in with that email and
YourNewPassword123.
One thing worth checking before you do this: what did the SELECT id, name, email, role FROM user; query show earlier? If that account’s role isn’t admin, resetting the password will get you logged in, but not as admin — worth confirming that first so we don’t do this twice.