Resetting the Admin Password

Tips on how to reset the built-in ‘admin’ password for:

• PaperCut MF or NG
• Mobility Print (without NG/MF)
• Mobility Print (with NG/MF)

PaperCut MF/NG - change the ‘admin’ password

PaperCut has a built in administrator account (called “admin”) that is available even if a connection to the domain / directory cannot be established. The default username for this account is admin, and the password is set during the setup wizard when the system was first installed. This account is not related to the domain administrator account.

Steps

1. Log onto the desktop of the server running PaperCut.
2. Navigate to the server.properties file on the server.
   • On Linux: this is found in /Home/PaperCut/server/server.properties
   • On Mac: this is found in /Applications/PaperCut [NG/MF]/server/
   • On Windows: this is found in C:\Program Files\PaperCut <MF/NG>\server\server.properties
     • Note: if you don’t see the server.properties file, it may be that you have filename extensions hidden. In File Explorer, click View, then in the Show/Hide group, ensure that “File name extensions” is checked.
3. Open the server.properties file with a plain text editor like NotePad or TextEdit and ensure you do so with administrator privileges in order to edit / save the file.
   • Windows: Find ‘notepad’ in your Start menu, right-click and select ‘Run as Administrator’. When notepad opens, use the ‘File → Open’ menus from that instance of notepad to open and edit server.properties.
   • macOS: You can use a third party text editor of your choice such as Sublime Text to edit a locked file.
4. Find the line admin.password= and change the value to something new, like admin.password=myNewPa$$w0rd.
5. Save the file.
6. Restart the PaperCut service. To do so on a Windows server, click the start button, type services.msc, press enter, find the service labeled PaperCut Application Server, right click on this and choose Restart. For more detailed instructions, or steps for Linux or macOS servers see the Stop and start the Application Server.
7. Wait a couple minutes for the PaperCut server to start up, and then attempt to log in again with the new Admin password.
8. Lastly, you can change the password to something new from within the web interface of the server by going to Options -> Advanced -> Reset admin password. This will change the password back to the hashed (i.e. encrypted) format.

Have a look at this video if you’d like to see someone try these steps…

Using SSO and having problems?

If you’re using PaperCut’s SSO functionality you may want to login manually rather than use SSO. To do this, simply change the url from http://servername:9191/admin to http://servername:9191/admin/nosso

PaperCut MF/NG - change the ‘admin’ account name

PaperCut has a built in administrator account (called “admin”) that is available even if a connection to the domain / directory cannot be established. The default username for this account is admin. This account is not related to the domain administrator account.

Steps

1. Log onto the desktop of the server running PaperCut.
2. Navigate to the server.properties file on the server.
   • On Linux: this is found in /Home/PaperCut/server/server.properties
   • On Mac: this is found in /Applications/PaperCut [NG/MF]/server/
   • On Windows: this is found in C:\Program Files\PaperCut <MF/NG>\server\server.properties
3. Open the server.properties file with a plain text editor like NotePad or TextEdit and ensure you do so with administrator privileges in order to edit / save the file.
   • Windows: Find ‘notepad’ in your Start menu, right-click and select ‘Run as Administrator’. When notepad opens, use the ‘File → Open’ menus from that instance of notepad to open and edit server.properties.
   • macOS: You can use a third party text editor of your choice such as Sublime Text to edit a locked file.
4. Find the line admin.username= and change the value to something new, like admin.username=administrator.

NOTE - after doing this you MUST also change the admin password at the same time. The instructions to do that are included above.

Mobility Print (without NG/MF)

Mobility has a built in administrator account (called “admin”). This is the only account you can use to administer your Mobility Print installation, and currently you cannot alter the username. The password is set during the setup wizard when Mobility was first installed. This account is not related to the domain administrator or other OS level account.

To change/reset the password manually:

Windows: Open the following file in a text editor: [app_dir]/data/config/admin.auth and modify the line AdminPassword. If the password has been set by the system it will be prefixed with HASH: - remove this when manually entering a plain text password. Make sure that you keep the quotes around the new password text.

For example, change:

• AdminPassword = “HASH:$2a$19$rM.4Wt7RvBYZUr8Volbdgu3SQCoTqJ.Y7EjPuZGiWjQUfdW125.5O”

To something like this:

• AdminPassword = “mypassword”

This allows you to set a password in cleartext. Save and close the file, then try logging into the Mobility Print interface again. The password in the text file will automatically be re-hashed the next time you log in.

Mobility Print (with NG/MF)

The Mobility Print admin interface will let you log in with any PaperCut NG/MF account that is either:

• The built-in admin account e.g. ‘admin’ in PaperCut NG/MF - reset by following the PaperCut MF/NG instructions above.
• A user account configured in PaperCut NG/MF with the “Access Options Section” admin right configured.

You can manage the usernames that have access, through PaperCut NG/MF. To reset the password for those accounts managed by PaperCut NG/MF:

• For the built in ‘admin’ account, follow the PaperCut NG/MF instructions above.
• For internal users in PaperCut NG/MF, follow the Resetting Internal User Password instructions
• For regular domain / user directory accounts in PaperCut NG/MF, you’ll need to reset the password in your user directory system - for example Active Directory or LDAP manager.

Categories: How-to Articles, User Management, Administration

Keywords: change, password, reset, login, forgot, forgotten, forget, lost, missing, default password