How to unlock the Sitecore admin user account?

Question

I know you can unlock normal Sitecore users from user manager by login in to Sitecore backend, as admin user.

Is there any way to unlock Sitecore admin user, when the user account gets locked?

Answer 1

If you have direct access to the database, you can run the following from SQL Management Studio:

UPDATE  aspnet_Membership 
SET     IsLockedOut = 0, 
        FailedPasswordAttemptCount = 0
WHERE   UserId IN (SELECT UserId FROM aspnet_Users WHERE UserName = 'sitecore\Admin')

Run this from the Core database.

Answer 2

In addition to the answer above, if you have the misery of forgetting the Sitecore password then this will save you:

UPDATE [aspnet_Membership] SET [Password]='qOvF8m8F2IcWMvfOBjJYHmfLABc=',
[PasswordSalt]='OM5gu45RQuJ76itRvkSPFw==', 
[IsApproved] = '1', [IsLockedOut] = '0'
WHERE UserId IN (SELECT UserId FROM dbo.aspnet_Users WHERE UserName = 'sitecore\Admin')  

It resets the password to the classic 'b'.

Answer 3

There is also an admin page:

URL: http://www.yoursite.com/sitecore/admin/unlock_admin.aspx

By default, it's disabled so you need to edit the aspx file to set enableUnlockButton to true.