Still remains unsolved.
Having an issue with trying to change the root and pma password on an XAMPP setup so that I can access it remotely. Regardless, it's bad practice and insecure to leave it without a password anyway. (This is for Windows Server 2016). So far, I have had to reinstall XAMPP four times to restart this issue, and after six hours of debugging I'm about to go insane.
I've tried following the HOW-TO, by setting the password using the shell. The password successfully changes. I run a test query with the new password, everything is good. So, I open the config.inc.php file, put in the password into the root area, set uses password to true, save the file, close it and restart Apache/MySQL. It is at this point that MySQL no longer starts due to "errors". I can no longer open MySQL. So, I add skip-grant-tables to the my.ini file, and it can start once again. However, I can't modify any user information with skip-grant-tables on. I shut down MySQL, try root with a password, without a password, require a password, and not require a password. MySQL just will NOT start without using skip-grant-tables, and again, when that's enabled, you cannot change user settings. This resulted in me reinstalling XAMPP.
I've also tried to change the passwords in PHPMyAdmin, which caused a major issue with access privileges. Same basic issue, rinse and repeat.
config.inc.php
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = 'root';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = 'mypassword';
Using skip-grant-tables is the only way to get the server started, but I cannot modify user tables when this is enabled. It is impossible to start the server without using this, after changing the root password.
What I'm looking to do, is reset the root and pma user passwords, so that I may access it remotely, or at the very least, simply provide security, as this will be a server used by clients for gaming.
This is not a duplicate post of any existing question, because I've spent nearly two hours searching for it. Everyone's suggestions is simply use skip-grant-tables, which makes it so you can't change user settings, or to add the passwords to the config (I did). I've gone around this four times now. If I change the root password, MySQL is simply bricked. Period.
To replicate: Install a new XAMPP (version 3.2.4). Open shell. Change the root user's password. Verify it works by running a test query. Close Shell. Open the config. Put the password in as code-blocked above. Save config. Restart MySQL. You can't - It won't start.
MySQL Error Log: https://pastebin.com/tLYAeGyt
