How to retrieve/reset admin password

It's sometimes necessary to retrieve or reset the password for the admin user. The password can only be retrieved from inside CompleteFTP Manager (i.e. after the admin user has already authenticated), but can be reset either from inside CompleteFTP Manager or from the command-line.

Retrieving the admin password

The method for retrieving the admin password is different in Enterprise MFT from the other editions.

Free, Standard and Professional Editions

  1. Open CompleteFTP Manager and connect to the server
  2. Select the Admin panel in the left sidebar.
  3. Click 'Change administrator password'
  4. Check the 'Show characters' checkbox
  5. The admin password is displayed

Enterprise MFT

  1. Open CompleteFTP Manager and connect to the server
  2. Select the Users panel in the left sidebar
  3. Click on the Options item in the left sidebar to show a context menu
  4. Click on the menu item, 'Show system users/folders/sites' (unless this item already has a tick next to it)
  5. Select the admin user from the list of users
  6. Select the Password property
  7. Click on the ellipsis (...) at the right to show the Enter Password form
  8. Check the 'Show characters' checkbox
  9. The admin password is displayed

Resetting the admin password

The admin password can be reset from inside the CompleteFTP Manager or from the command-line.

From CompleteFTP Manager

In cases where the user can log into CompleteFTP Manager, the admin password can be changed as follows:

Free, Standard and Professional Editions

  1. Open CompleteFTP Manager and connect to the server
  2. Select the Admin panel in the left sidebar.
  3. Click 'Change administrator password'
  4. Enter a new admin password
  5. Click OK
  6. Click Apply changes

Enterprise MFT

  1. Open CompleteFTP Manager and connect to the server
  2. Select the Users panel in the left sidebar
  3. Click on the Options item in the left sidebar to show a context menu
  4. Click on the menu item, 'Show system users/folders/sites' (unless this item already has a tick next to it)
  5. Select the admin user from the list of users
  6. Select the Password property
  7. Click on the ellipsis (...) at the right to show the Enter Password form
  8. Check the 'Show characters' checkbox
  9. Enter a new admin password
  10. Click OK
  11. Click Apply changes

From the command-line

If the user has lost access to CompleteFTP Manager the admin password may be reset as follows:

  1. Close CompleteFTP Manager if it's running
  2. Stop the CompleteFTP Service in the Windows services console
  3. Open a console window with administrator privileges (Run as Administrator)
  4. Enter the command: cd “C:\Program Files\Complete FTP\Server” (or for versions prior to 22.0.0, cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\Complete FTP\Server”)
  5. Enter the command: cftpconfig /p NEWPASSWORD where NEWPASSWORD is the new admin password
  6. Restart the CompleteFTP Service
  7. Start CompleteFTP Manager and connect using the new password