Lost Oracle SYS and SYSTEM password?

Here are a few ways to reset those passwords once forgetting them:

Approach 1:  SQLPLUS

To change the password of SYSTEM:

$ sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL> show user

SQL> passw system

SQL> quit

Next, to change the password of SYS:

$ sqlplus "/ as system"

SQL> passw sys
SQL> quit

Then you should be able to log on the SYS and SYSTEM users, with the passwords you just typed in.


Approach 2: creating password file

1) stop oracle instance service first

2) find the PWD<SID>.ora file for this instance, which is usually located at <ORACLE_HOME>\database\

3) rename the PWD<SID>.ora file to PWD<SID>.ora.bak for obvious safety reason

4) create a new pwd file by issuing the below command:
orapwd file=<ORACLE_HOME>\database\PWD<SID>.ora password=xxx
where <ORACLE_HOME> will be replaced by the exact path of it

5) start oracle instance server again.

Then you should be able to get in with the SYS user and change other passwords using the first way above.