Rest Admin Password not working

[ThePatch]

Been a while since I've been on the forums, Holidays, moving, geez!!!

Anyway, I'm having some issues logging into a store. I couldn't remember the password so I reset it. The new password still won't let me in. I've tried different browsers, everything. The client is having the same issue. Right now to my knowledge there's no way around this.

Any help?

[DrByte]

A search in the FAQ area for "admin password" brings up this article as the first search result: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=2

[ThePatch]

And if that doesn't work? The page doesn't refresh and tell me I've entered anything wrong, it just doesn't load the admin section

[DrByte]

That suggests that you've got a sessions problem. There are countless threads about "I cannot login to my admin", including some FAQ articles on the topic.

[ThePatch]

Forgive my ignorance but would a Session issue be file related or db? In other words, if I simply reload the login.php or other files . . . would that help? I'm really just worried about losing the product listing. If I can back up the database, re-install Zen, then restore the database and be good then I'll go that route.

[DrByte]

Should have nothing to do with your database. But, of course, if your site has a problem, the first thing I'd be doing is a full database backup. And a PHP file backup. If you're going to go mucking around trying to fix something you don't know how to fix, you'd better start with setting a restore point of sorts by making yourself a complete reliable backup.


Session handling is a PHP issue. Sometimes session data is configured to be stored in the database, and sometimes stored on the filesystem.

The most common cause of session handling being broken is having the hosting company do server alterations affecting folder permissions or recompiling (and/or upgrading) PHP and changing the compile/config settings in the process. Or upgrading PHP to a version that handles sessions differently than the previous version did.

The FAQ articles and related threads will go into more detail, but the basics are:
- /cache/ folder ... must be writable by Apache/PHP
- Folder specified by DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE in your configure.php files must also be writable
- Admin setting for Session Directory must match the DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE folder setting. The fix_cache_key utility in the Troubleshooting Addons section can help with that when your admin login isn't working
- server's PHP settings must have session handling enabled and allow for Zen Cart to create its own sessions etc. One way to check is to run zc_install and let it get to the system inspection screen and see if it throws any warning flags related to your PHP configuration

And for goodness sake, *Ask Your Hosting Company* what's been going on with the server since your store last worked. If *YOU* didn't change anything and suddenly the site is broken ... well ... all fingers point to whoever can change how the server operates. THEY should be the first place you pester.