Learn how to change your WordPress administrator email address using one of 3 methods.
Reasons to Change the WP Admin Email
There are several reasons to change your admin email. Many webmasters—especially first-timers—instinctively use their personal email when they set up WordPress. They may prefer to use a business email later, or one that relates more specifically to the blog or website. Some hosting companies automatically use your account’s email with WP auto-installations.
Professional Emails matter
If your personal email is a free one like Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL, etc., it can look amateur and untrustworthy. Thus, it makes more sense if you use the name of your site as the email. You can also choose whatever name you like with your unique domain.
Logical site email examples might be:
Emails that reflect users and usage are much easier to recognize, filter, and organize.
3 Ways to Change the WP Admin email
This tutorial looks at 3 ways to change the WP Administrator email address. It also shows 2 ways to change the WP Admin user-level email addresses. They are, in order or ease.
- WordPress Dashboard aka the Admin Area
- Change Admin Email plugin
- PhpMyAdmin (last resort)
Sometimes, WordPress fails to send email notifications using the new address. If it happens to you, follow the link at the end of this guide for a fix.
#1 Change the administrator email in WP Dashboard
The Administrator email is the main contact address that WordPress uses for the following:
- Send important site notifications
- Comments moderation notices
- Recover lost passwords
- Billing notifications where appropriate
- Other account and service-related information
The quickest way to change the administrator email is from within your WordPress admin area.
Log in to WordPress as Administrator.
Go to Settings => General from the Dashboard side menu.
You’re now at the General Settings screen.
Go to Administration Email Address and change the email.
Scroll to the end of the General Settings screen and click Save Changes.
Point to note: Look for an email confirmation message sent to the new address. You won’t be able to use the new email until you confirm it.
A pending message now appears under the address field on the General Settings screen. There’s also a Cancel link if you decide not to use the new email.
Change the admin user-level email
Go to Users => All Users from the Dashboard side menu.
Click the Edit link below the username of the admin level user you want to change the email for.
You’re now at the user’s Personal Profile Page.
Scroll down to Contact Info and change the email in the Email (required) field.
Click Update Profile at the bottom of the screen to save the changes.
WordPress sends a confirmation email to the new address. The new email won’t become active until you click the confirmation link or paste it into your browser.
New Email Not Arriving from WordPress
It’s frustrating if WordPress fails to deliver the new email address. It may end up in the SPAM folder, or in some cases, not even reach the recipient. WordPress not sending emails is quite a common problem, but there are ways to fix it.
There are tricks to change the admin email that don’t involve a confirmation message. One of those methods is to use a simple plugin, so let’s look at that first.
#2 Change the admin email with a plugin
Read ‘How to Install and Activate New Plugins in WordPress’ first if you need help.
The plugin that bypasses the email verification step is Change Admin Email by John Dee. Make sure it’s compatible with your WordPress version before proceeding.
Log in to your WordPress Admin area as the site administrator.
Install then Activate the Change Admin Email plugin.
Next, go to Settings => General from the Dashboard side menu.
Go to the Administration Email Address section. The email confirmation message that was there in method #1 above has now gone.
Enter your new admin email address.
Click the Test Email button.
The plugin will send a test email to the new address.
Scroll down and click Save Changes to start using the new admin email.
You’ve now changed the admin email and bypassed the verification process.
#3 Change the admin email using PhpMyAdmin
The PHP MyAdmin email rescue approach is for users who cannot log in to their WP admin area. It’s the last resort method. You should know something of your web hosting cPanel before continuing. If not, you may want to read What Is cPanel | A Quick Tour for Beginners first.
Log into your website’s cPanel Dashboard.
Go to the cPanel DATABASES section and click phpMyAdmin.
The next screen shows your WP database tables. If you don’t see them, click the DB name in the left-side column. The database tables will then open in the right-side pane.
Now locate and click wp_options in the left-side column.
Note: If your database prefix is not wp_, identify the correct prefix and continue.
Locate the admin_email in the option_name column, and click its Edit link (left).
phpMyAdmin now opens a new screen.
Replace the email address in the big box with the one you want to use, then click Go.
You have now changed the admin email in phpMyAdmin (no verification needed).
Change email for admin user-level accounts
Now let’s change the email address for the admin user-level account in phpMyAdmin.
Click wp_users from the left-side column to open the user’s table.
The quick way to change the admin email is to double-click it in the user_email column.
Double-clicking makes the cell editable.
Replace the email in the box with the one you want to use.
Another way is to click the Edit link for the admin level user whose email you want to change. This approach is handy if you need to alter other details too, like login and display names.
Replace the address in the user_email row with the one you want to use.
Click Go at the bottom right to save the changes.
That’s how you change the WordPress Administrator and Admin-level emails.
2 thoughts on “How to Change the WordPress Admin Email”
I have purchased your WordPress 2020 book and 1-hour wordpress 2021 but they dont help me as worpress is now 6.0.2 and i get lost. I would not use Udemy as the reviews are awful and it looks like some sort of scam. Can i purchase your courses direct from your company.Thank you vince.
My courses are only available on Udemy, which is not a scam. 🙂