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My windows 7 isn't booting up, but I was able to access the drive from another system. I am trying to restore MySQL workbench connections. I could restore the XML file which include all the connection (%appdata%/roaming/MySql/Connections.XML) but apparently, it doesn't store the connection password.

Mark Khateeb
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2 Answers2

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On Windows the password is stored in a private encrypted file user_data.dat (called the "password vault"). This vault can only be decrypted by the user who encrypted it. That means, even if you create a new user with the same username on a different machine, you will not be able to decrypt that file. I'm afraid you will have to enter your passwords again on the new machine/setup.

Mike Lischke
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  • If I am on the machine that created it and am the user that created it, how can I go about decrypting it? – The Unknown Dev Sep 29 '16 at 17:55
  • Very simple: write a little tool that does the same as MySQL Workbench. The code for that is in the Windows platform layer for mforms: https://github.com/mysql/mysql-workbench/blob/master/library/forms/winforms/src/wf_utilities.cpp#L894. – Mike Lischke Oct 03 '16 at 07:59
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    @KimberlyW a tool for decrypting the passwords is available at http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=41860.msg391762#msg391762. For more details check my answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/47038882/4235623 – nkatsar Nov 01 '17 at 11:37
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In later versions of MySQL Workbench (in Windows 10), the password vault file is located here:

%appdata%\roaming\MySql\Workbench\workbench_user_data.dat
Steve Chambers
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