Advanced Techniques: Resetting Admin Username and Password in Smarter Mail

The primary Smarter Mail administrator may need to reset their login credentials or those of a secondary administrator account, especially when they lose their password or their credentials fall into the wrong hands.

Note: To reset your domain administrator or user password for hosted Smarter Mail, contact your hosting provider directly, as these steps require access to the server where Smarter Mail is installed.

a) How do I reset the administrator username and password in Smarter Mail ?

1. First, stop the Smarter Mail service and navigate to the Windows Services Panel located in the Administrative Tools section of the Start menu.

2. Then, navigate to the administrators.json file, which is typically located in C:\Program Files (x86)\SmarterTools\SmarterMail\Service\Settings\administrators.json.

3. After that, make a backup copy of the administrators.json file.

4. Next, edit the administrators.json file; change its name and not the administrators_bak.json file, as it’s a backup for potential corruption or loss. Smarter Mail won’t recognize changes to the _bak file. To edit it, right-click the file, select Edit, or open Notepad with administrative access.

5. Then, the file lists all system administrator accounts, and you can reset the account by searching for its corresponding username or display name, with the primary administrator account represented by the is _primary_admin: true.

6. After that, replace the password_hash line with the new password hash after finding the correct administrator account, but avoid deleting the current hash as it will prevent administrators from logging in.

"1000:7Zf5bDhx+pB+3pSt9bFzbnnn9uiZi25P:+esCLUvFa/lw8c1+UMk+guGeHFfQ7Asc"

7. Next, save the file in the same folder as administrators.json. If prompted, select Yes to replace the existing file with the updated one.

8. Then, start the Smarter Mail service in the Windows Services panel.

9. Finally, a modified administrator account can log into Smarter Mail using its default username and password, but they should change their password to a more secure one by going to Settings and selecting Admins.